EarthWeek at the Reuse Center

Image by heraldpost
A student from Heidelberg Middle School holds an insect that turns trash into soil at the Heidelberg Reuse Center April 23. The class toured the recycling center before heading into the reuse center’s learning area, where they learned about composting and how to make paper from recycled paper. Classes came to the center during Earth Week to focus on earth friendly practices.

(Photo by Jason L. Austin)

Recycle your Mobile Phone

Recycle your Mobile Phone

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Home Page > News and Society > Recycling > Recycle your Mobile Phone

Recycle your Mobile Phone

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Posted: Sep 21, 2009 |

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The world we live in is always changing. Since the turn of the twentieth century, technology has progressed in leaps and bounds. Each new invention has been honed, sold to the masses, and quickly superseded by a newer, better, faster model, or replaced by a superior product. This progression in technology has become faster and faster, particularly in the past fifty years, and it seems as though since the turn of this century, technology has been evolving at the speed of light.

Mobile phones are a perfect example of the type of technology which is constantly changing, evolving, and updating. Since the mid-nineties, the advent of the mobile phone has exploded. What was once a luxury accessory for yuppies in the 80s and early 90s suddenly became the product that changed the way we lived. Almost overnight, there was a cell phone extravaganza. Mobiles were made suddenly available to everyday folk, and within a few years, owning a mobile phone was not simple luxury, it was a necessity. Nowadays, it seems as though we’ve moved on from simple requirement. The ‘emergency-use-only’ phone is a thing of the past, replaced by the must-have phone of the future.

483 million mobile phones were sold in 2003. In Britain, around 70% of the population own their own cell. And they’re not only used for calls. Phones can be used to text, for using the internet, and so, so much more. A person’s life is in their phone. Lose it, and you feel like you’ve lost an arm.

With the countless technological developments taking place around us, it seems there are new phones available for consumers to buy every month. Londoners alone purchase 1.3 million phones each year. And each one promises you the latest technology, the cleverest applications, the fastest internet speeds, and the best call and text packages for your money. So you buy a new one. After while you get bored. So another phone is purchased. And the cycle goes on. With this techno lust comes a sad downside: more and more unwanted mobile phones are being sent to the scrapheap.

The world we know is in crisis. Everywhere we look, we are being reminded how humans have destroyed the planet, and how we continue to do so, ravaging the earth without a thought for its future. And this is particularly true of the West. We destroy rainforests, pollute seas, and cause the extinction of numerous beasts, all because of our consumerist culture.

For many years it was easy to turn a blind eye. Yet, despite our errors, there seems to be an uprising against the destruction of our planet and its inhabitants. The past ten years has seen an increase in charities protecting our world, raising money for all causes. This idea that we are responsible, that we need to take the issues into our own hands, and make amends for our past errors, has begun to permeate our day-to-day lives. We are more aware of exhausting energy, so we endeavour to turn off the lights, and make sure the power sockets are off.

One of the most important things we can do as humans to project our environment is to remember the three Rs: reduce, re-use, and recycle. You may already recycle your food, paper, cans and glass. But how else can you help? Electronic equipment is often left on the scrapheap. Particularly mobile phones. Unfortunately, a great number of mobiles are left around the house after being replaced by the newer models, gathering dust. You might think nothing of throwing your phone away, or putting it in a drawer never to be seen again. But recycling your mobile phone can be a key part of doing your bit. Not only to save the planet, but for many other reasons.

Let’s say a few months ago, you purchased a new handset. It’s sleek and sexy and stylish, nothing like your old phone. So the old one went straight in the bin. And you thought nothing of it. Here’s what happens to your old faithful friend.

The refuse collectors take it away, and it eventually ends up in a land fill site. Slowly, over time, you old phone begins to degrade, breaking down over the years, becoming part of the earth. Each model of mobile phone is different, of course, but most are made with toxic substances, some of which are the most dangerous known to man: Cadmium (present in the battery, which alone can pollute up to 600 thousand litres of water), Palladium, Rhodium, and Beryllium to name a few. Shockingly, they can also contain arsenic and mercury. But perhaps your phone didn’t end up in a land fill site. Maybe it was dumped into the sea…

This is why we need to start reducing our waste, re-using our old possessions, and re-cycling things we no longer use.

If you have an old mobile phone, you might wonder exactly what you can do with it. Let’s take a look at the three Rs. Well, you can’t reduce a mobile phone. But you can certainly re-use it.

Yes, around 70% of the population already has a phone. But what about the remaining 30%? That’s still a significant amount. True, some people might say they don’t really need one. But have a think. Some of them might not be able to afford to buy their own. Some people might be afraid of technology, and may need someone to show them exactly how it works. And others might just be completely overwhelmed by the choice. If you think about it, it’s likely you know someone without a phone. Someone older, perhaps. Why not offer to give it away to them? An older person might even need it more than you ever did. Try to donate it to a friend or a family member.

If you can’t find anyone to give your mobile phone to, then do the next best thing: recycle it.

As mentioned before, some of the contents of your phone can be toxic and extremely dangerous. But other components of it contain many different materials to make up your whole handset. Some mobile phones include materials such as ceramics, silicon, copper, iron, epoxy, zinc, and nickel, to name but a few, and even precious metals such as bronze, silver, gold, platinum, and titanium. These metals are usually contained within the phones circuit board. Obviously, there is not a great deal in a single handset. But think how many mobile phones exist in the world today. If we managed to extract 0.2 grams of gold from 80 million handsets, we would have a giant lump of gold weighing 16 metric tons, which could be smelted down for use in other phones in the future.

The minerals, such as lead and copper, which are present in the handsets, are mined in places such as the Congo and in American rainforests. In order to mine, trees are felled and the natural land is scarred from urbanisation and deforestation. Yet, if we extract the minerals sufficiently, as above with the metals, we could significantly reduce the need for mining and consequential destruction of the natural earth.

All of these metals are in high demand, meaning that the countries which produce them naturally are suffering.  And it is not only the natural world that suffers.

In some cases, children are exploited and forced to work at stripping the phone handsets and removing the precious metals. This occurs in countries where there is high demand for such materials. Not only is the exploitation wrong, but these children often end up contracting terminal diseases, such as cancer, due to the toxicity of the substance they deal with on a daily basis.

Hopefully, this will encourage you to consider recycling your own old mobile. If you’re convinced, you have a few different options when it comes to recycling. Recycle Mobile Phone. You can register your details with your chosen company; pop it in the post, and shortly afterwards, you’ll receive your cheque in the mail.

It seems to be a fairly new concept for many, but there are still many companies out there which provide schemes for recycling your handset. They will recycle it safely on your behalf, and some companies will even pay you for the privilege. You may not get a lot of money, but it’s something. The reason for payment is simple: they can earn much more from extracting the metals and selling them back to phone companies. Your phone is very valuable to them. And if, after they have stripped the re-usable parts from it, they’re left with bits they can’t use, they will be disposed of in a safe and environmentally friendly way.

Most of these phone-buying companies can be found on the internet. Just do a quick search and click on a few sites, or find the all here at Recycle Mobile Phone.

However, if you’re feeling particularly saintly and want to do more for the environment and your