Australia Lagging On Mobile Phone Recycling
Australians are only recycling 3 per cent their mobile phones according to a recent investigation by the Total Environment Centre.
According to an ABC Report each year eight million mobile phones sold in Australia and these are being replaced every 18 to 24 months.
The Total Environment Centre argue that the industry run phone recycling program, Mobile Muster isn’t working, saying “once mobile phones reach landfill, heavy metals such as cadmium, lead and arsenic contained in the phone and battery can leach into ground water and put the environment and community health at risk.”
They’re urging governments to crack down on the industry and impose clear targets and suggest that like in other countries, a refundable deposit on old phones would be an incentive to encourage recycling.
Could schemes like Aussie Free Recycle encourage more recycling of household goods like mobile phones?
At the site, users unload household goods by advertising them for free giveaway, not sale like an auction site. The one rule in fact is that everything offered on the site must be free.
An interesting idea perhaps to reduce our never ending reliance on landfill.
3 Comments
Isn’t it best to reuse before recycling? How about giving the “old” mobile phones to non profit community organisations? I’d dearly love to be able to give a phone to each of my staff who get out and about but the purchase price is too high.
I find that the way that mobile phones are designed is environmentally unfriendly. Companies deliberately change elements of even the designs that are supposedly from the same ‘family’ such as the types and sizes of the batteries used, the size of the recharge socket and the casing so that you can’t strip down an old mobile and reuse the parts as ‘spare’ for your new mobile as you might a car, for example.
Another thing with this is that it is now harder to find parts for older mobiles. My phone is four years old and needs a fresh battery but a lot of phone retailers don’t sell the size/type I need any more, rendering my phone virtually useless despite the fact that the phone itself works.
I agree with Adeline, getting spare parts for old mobiles is pretty tough, moreover current mobile phones are non biodegradable.
The one solution is to create awareness campaign for mobile phone recycling which in turn benefits developing countries and also raise funds for charity organizations.