Undertake The Responsibility of Cell Phone Recycling to Reduce E-Waste

During the last decade, the electronic industry's consumer oriented growth combined with rapid product obsolescence and technological advances has posed a new environmental challenge. The electronic industry has assumed the role of providing a forceful leverage to the socio - economic and technological growth of a developing society. But it has also affected us with the growing menace of "Electronics Waste" or "e waste" that consists of obsolete electronic devices.

It is an emerging problem as well as a business opportunity of increasing significance, given the volumes of e-waste being generated and the content of both toxic and valuable materials in them. E-waste is one of the fastest growing waste streams and makes up approximately 4 per cent of municipal waste in the European Union. In the US, between 14 and 20 million PC's become obsolete every year. Computers and display units contain significant amounts of material that are hazardous to human health if they are not disposed of properly.

Monitors, cell phones and televisions constitute 40% of all lead and 70% of all heavy metals found in landfills. These heavy metals and other toxins that can leach into the soil from landfills, evaporate into the air, and enter the air through incineration. These products contain several rechargeable battery types, all of which contain toxic substances that can contaminate the environment when burned in incinerators or disposed of in landfills.

E-waste toxins include polyvinyl chloride (PVC plastics), copper, lead, mercury, arsenic, cadmium, manganese, cobalt, gold, and iron. Between 1994 and 2003, disposal of PCs resulted in 718,000 tons of lead, 287 tons of mercury, and 1,363 tons of cadmium being placed in landfills. As per a survey the cadmium from one mobile phone battery is enough to pollute 600 m3 of water. The quantity of cadmium in landfill sites is significant, and considerable toxic contamination is caused by the inevitable medium and long-term effects of cadmium leaking into the surrounding soil. Because plastics are highly flammable, the printed wiring board and housings of electronic products contain brominated flame retardants, a number of which are clearly damaging to human health and the environment.

One method to overcome this issue is taking to recycling. It has many benefits with none disadvantages. For instance, just one cell phone recycling saves enough energy to power a laptop for 44 hours. If Americans recycled all of the 130 million phones that are tossed aside annually in the United States, we could save enough energy to power more than 24,000 homes for a year. Recycling one million phones also saves enough energy to provide electricity to 185 U.S. households for a year.

It is high time the manufactures, consumers, regulators, municipal authorities, governments, and policy makers take up the matter seriously so that the different critical elements are addressed in an integrated manner. It is the need of the hour to have an "e waste-policy" and activities as recycle cell phones as one major part of the frame work for promotion of such activities.