We depend on the earth to provide us with resources
that we use to make our lives easier, but the improper disposing
of waste is creating complex environmental problems. By properly
disposing of old cell phones, they can be reconditioned to extend
their useful life, donated to shelters and law enforcement agencies
to provide emergency communications, or be recycled to extract
useful substances. All of these measures help to keep hazardous
wastes and toxic chemicals out of landfills and incinerators
where they potentially reduce air quality and leach harmful chemicals
into ground water.
An estimated 130 million, or roughly 65,000 tons,
of cell phones will be retired every year for the next 3 years.
A total of 500 million cell phones are expected to be gathering
dust by the end of 2005. At the rate cell phones are being recycled
right now, less than 1 percent of those phones will end up being
recycled.
What Recycling Cell Phones Can Do:
- Keep harmful chemicals from reaching groundwater and polluting
the air
- Reduce the amount of resources extracted from the earth
- Help ensure a healthy environment for future generations
- Prolong the life of a cell phone
- Introduce cell phones into new markets with limited communication
capability
We have done our part to provide a proper way to
dispose of these phones, and now it's up to you to do your part
and start recycling.
