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Recycling Cell Phones

If you live in California, tossing your old cell phone into the trash could get you arrested.

In a state where cell phone users replaced 13 million handsets the last time anyone counted (2004), legislators have found it necessary to require cell phone recycling plans in order to prevent landfills from turning into toxic dumps.

Two state laws that recently took effect prohibit people from throwing away used phones and require companies that sell them to offer free recycling programs to customers. It’s the latest in ongoing efforts nationwide to reduce the amount of used electronics making its way into landfills, where heavy metals, plastics, acids and other hazardous materials used to make these products can leach out and pollute the surrounding environment, including local water supplies.

Nationally, more than 215 million people talk on wireless phones. The average cell phone user swaps his or her phone for a newer model every 18 months. When hot new phones come onto the market, such as Verizon’s Razr phone, customers are quick to dump their old phones for the latest and greatest gadget. Recycling companies report phones coming in that are sometimes just a few months old.

Companies such as ReCellular, which carries more than half the nation’s recycling market for cell phones, fix and clean up thousands of phones per day that are then reintroduced to the market. Those phones that cannot be reused are ground up and the materials are recycled.

So the next time you pick up a new phone, remember that just because you can’t use it anymore, doesn’t mean somebody else can’t. Consider dropping it off at your local cell phone dealer or charity for recycling purposes, rather than tossing it onto a toxic heap of trash.

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To read more about this and other environmental health issues, go to: www.environmentalhealthnews.org, www.ourstolenfuture.org, or www.healthandenvironment.org