Disposal of cell phones harmful to environment

Sklar is a second-year communications studies student.
 

By Jason Sklar

Ever wonder what happened to those massive 1980s portable
phones? Or what about those old car phones installed under your arm
rest? Nowadays, it seems that cell phones are becoming so small
it’s easy to misplace them. No worries. If you can’t
find your phone, just buy another one. This seems to be the
attitude of every other wireless information swapper these
days.

In the next three years, Americans will discard approximately
130 million cell phones, creating 65,000 new tons of trash,
according to Inform, an environmental research organization. And
this is not just any trash. This gilded garbage contains the latest
toxic metals and is chock-full of harmful pollutants.

The study found that by 2005, there will be 200 million cell
phone subscribers in America. With all these new users and faithful
wireless warriors, cell phone waste raises environmental
concern.

“Because these devices are so small, their environmental
impacts might appear to be minimal,” says Bette Fishbein, the
researcher who authored the report. However, she believes the climb
in the number of cell phone users is so quick and colossal
“that the environmental and public health impacts of the
waste they create are a significant concern.”

The persistent mobile upswing will leave about 500 million
dilapidated mobile phones to be stockpiled. If you want to be
comforted about cell phone waste, just ask the corporate executives
behind the Nokia and Motorola operations. Surely they’ll be
eager to share how cell phone toxins provide arsenic-rich drinking
water, cultivate the soil with antimony, cadmium, copper, lead, and
zinc, and flood the air with beryllium and nickel. Ingestion or
exposure to significant amounts of any one of these toxic chemicals
can put you at a greater risk for cancer, gastrointestinal and lung
disease. That’s not to say that toxic waste dumps, nuclear
power plants and oil refineries do not already emit harmful levels
of pollutants, because they do. But the danger in wireless waste is
that most people do not even know the environmental ramifications
of excessive cell phone purchases.

When we realized that we could recycle aluminum cans, bottles
and newspapers, we decided not to abandon products with those
materials, and instead threw them in colorful plastic bins.
Likewise, there is no way that wireless communicators would be
willing to give up their cell phone companions. The study by Inform
said that on average a cellular telephone is kept only 18 months,
and in many cases thrown into a closet or drawer and finally
discarded with the household garbage.

Environmentalists have already suggested starting
“donate-a-phone” programs to collect old cell phones
and dole them out to charities and developing countries. This is a
fantastic solution except for one thing ““ this program has
about the same degree of popularity as skinny-dipping in
Antarctica. Only three states have made arrangements for
legislation so far, and it doesn’t look like too many other
states are aching to jump on the recycle-cell bandwagon. And even
when cell phones are disposed of properly, they will eventually end
up in toxic waste dumps where they contaminate the environment.

Without the development of “take-back” programs that
allow phones and their batteries to be recycled, America’s
wireless trash troubles will continue to escalate. While most
wireless talkers are connected at the hip to their phones, it is
time to reconsider buying the latest model. Hold off on that trip
to Radio Shack or Circuit City until your phone actually ceases to
function. Just because your neighbor has a cell phone three
millimeters shorter with an e-mail function, it doesn’t mean
you can’t make do with your pocket-sized mobile for a couple
more years. Americans must begin to reevaluate their purchasing
practices and start thinking about the repercussions of killing off
cell phone after cell phone.

In Australia, the government has already instituted a nationwide
cell phone program and the European Union is considering actions to
make manufacturers responsible for setting up a recycling program.
It’s time for America’s wireless corporations to start
playing catch-up. But is it solely the manufacturer’s
responsibility to repair the environment? Both producers and
consumers can take credit for the environmental destruction. Mobile
users can start helping the environment by cutting back on their
consumption of cellular products. But for a decline in cell phone
purchases to occur, manufacturers must make the wireless talker
more aware of how those old phones just lying around the house can
be hazardous to his health.

Additionally, cell phone recycling programs need to be more
available and better advertised. If cell phone companies are going
to require a new phone every time a consumer decides to upgrade his
service, then they had better start providing a disposal service
for the old ones.

There is no reason that your mobile phone needs to be replaced
every year and a half. Start reusing, reducing, and at the very
least, stop buying. While you may feel that your trashed cell phone
poses no environmental threat, keep in mind that that is what
everyone else is thinking as well.