Last updated April 12, 2019
Recently, a survey conducted in Philippines revealed that this nation with a 92 million population has around 87 million subscribers using cell services. This constitutes 94% of the total population of the country. It is like a drop of water into the vast ocean. International Telecommunications Union pegged world-wide cell phone subscribers at approximately 5 billion. Just imagine, each owner use a cell phone just for a year, and if so many people discard their cell phones each year, the carbon footprint from obsolete handsets can create astronomical harm to our Earth’s environment.
A study by Pike Research revealed that toxic waste discharged from discarded electronics (which includes cells also) is continuously rising. An estimated amount of 73 million metric tonnes toxic waste is likely to be added to the world’s landfill by 2015.
Businesses, houses, products or events can cause carbon footprints that greenhouse emissions have created. Cell phones do not consume a huge amount of power, but the materials used for their manufacturing and production constitute a sufficiently large carbon footprint. So, it is necessary to recycle old cell phones.
The main thing is – the size of the carbon footprint released by your cell phones entirely depends upon you. If you discard it, your cell phone has the potential to add to the increasing volume of toxic waste. On other hand, if you recycle or/and sell it, it is again used in a productive manner by lessening the necessity of manufacturing new parts, and helps to reduce the level of poison in the environment.
Recycling or selling your cell phone is a more responsible attitude.