Discarded Cell Phones

psychictv points to a NYT story about discarded cell phones as an environmental hazard. The study mentioned in the article is available online. Every year or so we run a story on paper, disposable cell phones but even these would generate a fair amount of waste.

Comments

Know What I do with my old Phones?

[ksplatter]

I feed them to my personal Robot Rosie. She also enjoys PDA, Cogs and Sprockets.

Doesn't anyone these days enjoy a good Jetson References. DAMN KIDS these days!

Do Something about It For Free

[pgrote]

A group called Collective Good will take your cell phones and recycle them. Not only do developing nations get phones, but the people who refurbish them are trained. An interview with Seth Heine the founder of the group, explains a little more.

It's a way to give back that doesn't hurt you or cost you anything.

Re:Do Something about It For Free

[unicron]

"With your generous donations, we can make sure children like little Pepsi(Pepi-whatever) here get the phones they need to keep up with all their little friends. Each month, your child will send you a heart warming letter telling you how he used the phone, be it to order pizza, make a booty call, or simply check the temperature. Sometimes we take it for granted, always upgrading our phone, getting the latest and greatest color, photo capable phone. It may break your heart to know that most of these kids don't even have call waiting. Please, send us your phone. Together, we can make the world a better place."

Women's shelters

[jamesdood]

I know that at here you can donate to womens shelters for use as emergency 911 phones, they don't need to have service to call 911.

Re:Women's shelters

[DoomHaven]

Nod, I know Motorola does this with donated old cell phones.

My Discarded Cellphone...

[LordYUK]

After moving 3 states away from my coverage, I learned of a thing called "roaming"... learned it to the tune of 350 bucks... I disposed my cell phone by testing out gravity from the second story of my apartment complex... I'd like to state, as of last August at least, Gravity Still Works.

Humor folks, enjoy it. =)

(and for all you trolls who are going to flame me for "not know what roaming is" there were other factors not the least of which is phone companies suck alot, monopolistic bastards, and yes, I was aware I was roaming, there was simply no other choice for about 3 months...)

Used != useless

[Cialti]

As the article mentions, there are a number of charities that will accept used cellphone donations. One of the largest is the "Donate a Phone CALL to PROTECT" program that Motorola runs (they accept any model of phone, not just Motorolas). Phones are either refurbished and then distributed to domestic violence victims, or sold, and the proceeds go to domestic violence prevention programs. More information is available at: http://www.wirelessfoundation.org/12give/index2.cf m

Why can't people resell these?

[King_TJ]

I don't understand why so many people are tossing out their old cellphones in the first place?

Every old cellphone I've ever owned, I was able to resell for at least $15 on eBay. (Often times, for much more than that!)

People who don't want to be locked into 1 or 2 year long contracts often buy your "useless" old cellphones, so they can keep them in their vehicles as spares for emergencies.

Check Here for more Info

[Real World Stuff]

Collective Good has been recycling for years.
CollectiveGood is the mobile phone recycling resource. If you have a spare mobile phone sitting on a shelf or in a drawer, you can recycle it here in an environmentally and socially responsible manner. At CollectiveGood, you can:

• Turn that spare mobile phone into something useful for people in the developing world Help raise funds for a charity of your choice in the process
• 
  Preserve the environment by keeping your used mobile phone out of a landfill, and by recycling it back into reuse
  Be rewarded for your good deed with a thank you letter and tax-deduction for your in-kind donation to a charity
  Think mobile phone recycling is a good idea? Share it!
  

Radio Shack is doing recovery efforts

[strredwolf]

They're advertizing $50-$100 off a new phone if you trade in an old one.

Same as old computers...

[syrupMatt]

There are already organizations that will safely recycle (or even better, refurbish for lower incomes) your old computers (http://www.accrc.org comes to mind for those in cali, us).

There are organizations which will also take your old cellphones. Earth911 (http://www.earth911.org) will use it as a free emergency phone, and the rbrc will take the batteries (http://www.rbrc.org/consumer/).

IMHO, the idea of sending these used cellphones to underprivleged nations doesn't wash, unless you are willing to include some infrastructure with them:)

Providers partly at fault

[Anonymous Coward]

I have 3 used cell phones sitting at home. Why? Everytime I have changed service providers I was REQUIRED to buy a new phone. In fact the phone I actively use now it the exact same model as my previous phone. My current provider said it was "not possible" to reprogram the phone to work on their network. He had no answer as to how the charities are able to reprogram them for battered women's shelters.

Until the providers allow cell phones to change networks, the useless ones will keep piling up!

Sign me "Peeved at the artificial waste!"

Re:Providers partly at fault

[SkOink]

My current provider said it was "not possible" to reprogram the phone to work on their network. He had no answer as to how the charities are able to reprogram them for battered women's shelters.

As sombody who used to sell cellular phones: Actually, the shelters don't need to reprogram the phone. Any cellphone in the 'states (not sure about other places) can call 911, regardless of provider, even without active service (as long as they have reception). So the all the shelters need to do is see that the phone gets a working battery, and distribute them.

Something else you might not know is that these phones actually _do_ use different hardware inside. The transmitting circuits, as well as the digital antenna, are precisely tuned to the chunk of the CDMA band occupied by each phone's provider. These settings cannot be changed any more than you could 'reprogram' an FM radio to pick up shortwave.

Coltan

[Draxinusom]

This is even more distressing when one considers that the capacitors in these discarded cellphones are made of an element (tantalum) with an incredibly high cost of extraction in terms of human suffering. The mining of Ta has exacerbated a war in the Congo (which has over 80% of the world's Ta reserves) that has killed more than three million people. See for example What is Coltan? A google search for coltan congo cell phones turns up more.

Blame the wireless companies

[Eric Seppanen]

If the wireless companies are going to sell phones that won't work with any other service provider, it should be their problem when all these crippled phones end up in landfills.

Don't throw it away! Donate it to charity!

[GuNgA-DiN]

You can donate your old phone to charity here:

http://www.wirelessfoundation.org/12give/index2.cf m

Donated Phones are Tax Deductible!

The key paragraph

[NearlyHeadless]

That is starting to add up to a huge amount of waste, says Inform, an environmental organization that issued a report this year on old phones.The Environmental Protection Agency helped finance the study.

These people get paid to find problems, whether they are significant or not. If you think cellphones are a significant problem, I dare you to go to a landfill sometime and try to find just one cellphone.

Nor are the chemicals in them a significant danger. Computer monitors, yes, contain a lot of lead. But all these other stories about the dangers of electronic waste are bullshit scare stories.

Re:This probably will be reduced

[Waffle Iron]

when the phones go to a single chip. In our head.

That future might suck. For example: You finally meet the girl of your dreams. She's smart, funny, beautiful, available, and she digs you. She's perfect in every way -- except that she's been wired for an incompatible communications protocol.

Bummer.

Re:This probably will be reduced

[pizza_milkshake]

That future might suck. For example: You finally meet the girl of your dreams. She's smart, funny, beautiful, available, and she digs you. She's perfect in every way -- except that she's been wired for an incompatible communications protocol.

in the future? i thought women have always been like this.