OPEN FOR DISCUSSION
By Brian Rohrig
Be Smart—Recycle that Old Cell Phone! What should you do with your cell phone when it dies? Is it safe to just throw it in the trash? If you recycle your cell phone, what happens to it?
Toxic heavy metals
Recycling cell
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phones The lifespan of a typical smartphone is 21 months. Even though smartphones are made to be quite sturdy, their constant You can also recycle your use and the occasional drop takes its toll, so this short time period old cell phone. Most stores should not come as a surprise. And with newer and fancier models that sell cell phones offer free recybeing churned out every year, U.S. residents throw away more cling of old phones, and many than 140 million cell phones every year. companies give you cash for ACTURING If you cannot sell your old cell phone, what should you UF dropping off unwanted cell do with it? One option is to toss it in the trash. Doesn’t phones for it get shipped to a landfill recycling, Eco ATMs are recycling kiosks KA PAC GIN where it is buried in ACTIO R in the state of Washington T even if they X E that offer instant cash for some remote location do not cell phones and other small far from human habiwork. devices. tation? These cell The United phones are sent to a recycling center. If the RECYCL I States generates cell phone is in relatively good shape, it may more than 2 milbe refurbished and donated to organizalion tons of electronic tions that serve those in need, such as SPORTAT waste each year. Even N military charities, senior citizen centers, A though electronics and domestic violence shelters. Other make up only 2% cell phones are disassembled, and of the waste their components are reused by the cell A POS L IS FUL LIFE in landfills, E phone industry. Because many of S they repthe metals in cell phones are O F LI E resent 70% F becoming increasingly difficult to of the heavy find in nature, recycling these metals metals found in makes sense from both an environmental landfills. It is these heavy metals that can cause longand an economic standpoint. term pollution risks and seriously affect human health. Dozens Despite the obvious benefits of recycling, most old cell of different kinds of metals are found in a typical smartphone, many of phones still end up in the trash. According to the U.S. which are toxic. Environmental Protection Agency, of the 141 Lead, nickel, arsenic, and cadmium are million cell phones discarded in just a few of the toxic metals found in 2009, only 12 million were recymost smartphones. In China, for example, soil cled. A great service project would be to levels of toxic metals at electronics disposal sites have set up a cell phone-recycling program in your been measured to be between 10 times and 100 times high school. It only takes one person to make a greater than normal levels of toxic metals in soil. Exposure difference! to these chemicals can result in a variety of adverse health effects, including birth defects, neurological disorders, and kidney damage.
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ECOATM; RHONDA SAUNDERS; FAIRPHONES.ORG; DOLLAR PHTO CLUB
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