UPI Technology News - December 3 2004
Old mobile phones a hazard
By Gene J. Koprowski
CHICAGO, Dec. 3 (UPI) -- A mobile phone is a disposable product -- consumers
buy a new one about every year and a half, and toss the old one in the
closet. Then, years later, when they have a major house-cleaning weekend,
they find a few old phones collecting dust and toss them out in the trash.
Experts told UPI's Wireless World this pattern is starting to become a major
environmental issue, as old mobile phones start to fill up garbage dumps
across the United States and leach lead, arsenic, gold and other toxins into
the groundwater.
"There are a lot of heavy metals being released into landfills because of
old mobile phones," said Chuck Harrell, an environmental supervisor with the
Southeastern Public Service Authority, a government agency in Chesapeake,
Va.
Now, mobile phone manufacturers such as Motorola Corp. are collaborating
with environmentalists and the government to solve this emerging problem.
Municipalities are joining to create mobile-phone recycling centers for
their residents.
Technology companies are developing mobile-phone casings out of
biodegradable materials -- even plant seeds, which sprout flowers after they
break down in the ground after disposal. Other entrepreneurial firms are
beginning to see this as a potentially major new business. They are setting
up operations to collect America's old mobile phones, refit them and sell
them in Latin America and South America, or donate them to American forces
serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, so they can call loved ones for free or a
reduced fee.
Brian Brundage, chief executive officer of Intercon Solutions, a recycler
located in Chicago, said about 80 percent of the circuit boards in mobile
phones are lead-based. The phones recycled at his plant yield lead, steel,
gold, copper and plastic, which then are used in other electronic products.
"This helps reduce the amount of mining that has to be done for future
materials," said Brundage, whose company has been awarded about $300,000 in
grant monies from the state of Illinois to study future recycling processes.
Other businesses are emerging around the idea of recycling old mobile
phones, said Tony Romando, editor-in-chief of Sync magazine, a cutting-edge,
hip consumer electronics journal in New York City.
"Ring tones and games are options on mobile phones today that are really
popular," said Romando, formerly an editor at Rolling Stone magazine. "But
the options are going far beyond that now. There are biodegradable casings
for mobile phones, made out of sunflower seeds. Once they are thrown out and
they break down, they sprout flowers. There may be a whole portion of the
population that wants these."
Romando said his magazine is calling the devices "green phones." He also
said smaller entrepreneurs are setting up kiosks in shopping malls, offering
customers payment in exchange for old mobile phones. They then resell the
phones or recycle them.
Ultimately, this trend is about environmental stewardship being exercised by
companies -- as well as the government, Harrell said. "This is becoming a
national trend."
**PLEASE
CLICK HERE TO GO BACK TO OUR PRESS PAGE**
Top
Please choose a sub-topic below for further information:
Print Friendly
