Category: Recycling

The controversial decision made by Nokia to switch the operating system for its cell phones to the one made by software giant Microsoft caused shockwaves when it was announced last week and they are not dying down. The Helsingen Sonomat has said that such a move will cost hundreds of employees their jobs, forcing embattled Nokia chief executive Stephen Elop to again come out and defend this decision, this time implying that other roles will be found within the company for those employees who will be affected by the operating system switch.

Are cell phones dangerous to your health? That is the claim of a group of influential scientists who claim that wireless cell phones have been linked to cancer, infertility and numerous neurological diseases and that more needs to be done to protect people from the electromagnetic radiation being sent out into the world by cell phones, cell phone towers, power lines and wireless internet.

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.

The first cell phone recycling scheme ever to be launched in Kenya is about to get underway courtesy of collaboration between cell phone service provider Safaricom and Computers for Schools Kenya (CSK), which runs a recycling scheme for computers in the country.

EcoATM, the company that runs kiosks which allow consumers to dump their old cell phones and other electronics in order for them to be recycled, is expanding its operations. The company has just received almost fourteen and a half million dollars from Coinstar and Claremont Creek Ventures via a Series A funding round for start up companies and intends to start setting up its kiosks in gas stations and supermarkets. The kiosks use artificial intelligence, electronics diagnostics and machine vision to identify the old cell phone or other electrical item being offered for recycle, wipe any personal information they may still contain and then offer the recycler compensation in the form of either cash, a coupon, a gift card or a donation to a charity.

Sunnking Electronics and eScrap Recycling, a recycling company based in Brockport which deals with old cell phones and other out of date electronics, have teamed up with the charity known as Foodlink in a bid to help them continue to feed the needy in the county of Rochester and other surrounding areas.

The end might be in sight for mammoth cell phone masts causing a blot on the landscape. Those in the cell phone industry are looking into the possibility of creating much smaller antennae, which could be placed outside buildings, on lamp posts, or even carried by hand. As well as cutting out the unsightly blots on the landscape, the small solution could even put an end to slow data speeds and those ‘dead spot’ areas where cell phone transmissions break up.

Bullies who use cell phones or social media sites to target their victims will be the feeling the pinch themselves if the Georgia House Democrats have anything to do with it. Yesterday the party introduced the second of three legislative packages intended to provide an alternative to those of the GOP. This one, the Educational Opportunities package, includes an Act that allows parents to take leave in order from work in order to attend important school functions or to look after members of their family, an Act to repeal the taxpayer funded credit that is giving fifty million US dollars to private schools even though public schools remain chronically underfunded – and one, known as the End Cyber Bullying Act, which specifically targets those that use social media and cell phones to bully and intimidate their victims.

For most of us, our cell phones are a whole lot more than just something we make a call from. We use them as alarm clocks, as portable GPS, as our MP3 player, as a Twitter device, as a way to surf or update our Facebook page, as an e-reader or document editor – the list goes on. Because of this, and the constantly improving cell phone technology, Americans change cell phones a lot.

Smuggled cell phones inside prisons are becoming an epidemic in the United States, particularly in California where eleven thousand cell phones were seized from prisoners last year. Cell phones have been used to arrange attacks and extortions, and while cell phone jammers have been touted as a solution, they have the less than useful side effect of also jamming official emergency communications.