Author: John M

Those wishing to recycle old cell phones, along with other electrical goods, in California now have a much easier time of it than ever before. Over nine and a half million households in the US state, more than eighty-three percent, are now within ten miles or less of their nearest drop-off point where they can safely dispose of used cell phones and other forms of waste for the purposes of recycling. Even better, around seven million of those, around six out of every ten households, is actually within five miles. There are now no less than two hundred and thirty-five collection points for e-waste throughout California.

No one knows the worth of cell phone recycling better than John Shegarian. Shegarian, the Chief Executive Officer of Electronic Recyclers International Inc, has made millions out of recycling electronic equipment, including old cell phones. ‘Urban mining’ is how Shegarian describes the process of the recycling of electronic goods, including used cell phones, and he should know.

Alcoa has joined the Basel Action Network (BAN), the environmental company which is dedicated to promoting the recycling of electronics, including old cell phones. Alcoa has already been recognized as a leader in environmental sustainability, being on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index for the last nine years in a row. It has signed up for Basel Action Network’s e-Stewards Enterprise, which helps companies to responsibly recycle their electronic waste, including used cell phones.

Just the one company, Hoosiers, donated over fifteen thousand used cell phones to the Verizon Wireless HopeLine program over the course of 2010. The HopeLine program, which was established in order to help survivors of domestic violence in Indiana in the United States, both reuses the old cell phones by giving them to the victims and also recycles them in order to give cash to non profit organizations that try to prevent and raise awareness of domestic violence, in addition to local shelters.

The EU has set new targets for the recycling of e-waste, but at least one recycling company believes they are still just not good enough. At the moment, the EU Environment Council has set collection quotas of four kilograms of electrical and electronic waste, including old cell phones, per person, but is now looking to change those quotas to a percentage of how much electrical equipment is sold instead.

A Newton lawyer has come up with a novel way to try to get the younger generation to not use their cell phones while they are operating a motor vehicle in what could be described as a good old-fashioned bribe. Lawyer Corey Walker and his wife Beth have come up with a scheme to effectively pay young drivers to not use cell phones while they are driving.

Residents of Cheshire are being encouraged to recycle electrical products, including old cell phones, in a bid to cut down on the number of such items ending up in landfills. The newspaper, The Middlewich Guardian, says that the Cheshire West and Chester Council is running a new scheme under the name of ‘Don’t Bin It, Bring It’.

The revolutions occurring across the Middle East are being pushed along by the advent of modern technological developments such as cell phones and social media websites on the internet. Cell phones have been used to record events on the streets in countries such as Tunisia and Egypt and Libya, which are then uploaded for the internet for other citizens and indeed the rest of the world to witness, with footage of violent government crackdowns on peaceful protesters only further fuelling anger and revolt against the authoritarian regimes.

Somewhere between twenty and fifty million tons of electronic waste, including old cell phones, is generated worldwide each and every year, according to Greenpeace International, with more than four and a half million landing up in landfills in the United States alone, which makes the moves toward finding ways toward the recycling of used cell phones and other electrical equipment so important, particularly when the improper disposal of these items can lead to dangerous toxins such as cadmium, lead and mercury polluting both the air and the soil of the world around us.