Category: Recycling

It may be law in South Africa that makes the dumping of waste such as used cell phones and other electrical gadgets an illegal act, but that is unlikely to do much good if the great majority of companies in the country are unaware that there even is such legislation.

While the state of California has had some success in the recycling of electronic waste such as old cell phones, televisions, computers and the like, with more than a billion pounds worth recycled.

Years of unchecked importation of electronic waste such as old cell phones into the Philippines may have already contaminated local communities, according to ecological experts.

The recycling of old cell phones and other forms of electronic waste is not a high priority of most in the business community, according to an industry watcher. The global research director of research and advisory company CSC, David Moschella, says that the majority of enterprise has the recycling of e-waste well down their list of priorities, for the simple reason that it is not “financially attractive”.

The city of Sydney in Australia has just shifted more than 14 tons of electrical waste, including old cell phones, in barely six hours at a collection held over the weekend. Electronic waste is growing at three times the rate of any other form of waste even in Australia, yet Sydney is still one of the few places in the country where the council offers free collection sites for used cell phones and other such electronic goods.

Each year, there are over four billion cell phones manufactured worldwide. Out of those, less than 3% make it to a recycling center.

A story on the truth about where electronic items, including but not limited to old cell phones, go once they have reached the end of their useful life, has been named as the favorite story of CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley in the United States.

Old cell phones and other such devices could pose a health risk in hospitals because of the amount of germs that can accumulate on their surfaces. The germs that old cell phones and the like are carrying into hospitals are not just any old bacteria either, but highly “worrisome” drug resistant bacteria, according to researchers from the Inonu University’s Department of Medical Microbiology in Malatya in Turkey.

Using a new or old cell phone for the purposes of having a conversation with someone might seem to some to be the sole point of owning such a device in the first place, but evidence is growing that more and more people are using their cell phones for just about everything except talking.

India will have new rules regarding the disposal of old cell phones and other items of electronic waste from next year. The new rules, which will cover everyone involved in the manufacture, processing, purchasing and sales of every kind of electrical goods, will force all recycling and collection centers to get authorization from the GSPCS (Goa State Pollution Control Board).