Analyses And Synthesis Of How Cell Phones Impact Our Lives

In the United States, typical cell phone contracts can provide the customer with a new phone every 18-24 months. Many consumers may choose to switch phones more often than that in response to the rapid improvement of products and releases of premium offerings like the iPhone and the Blackberry. The potential electronic waste of discarding these millions of old cellular phones a year is considerable, as is the amount of raw materials used to manufacture the new ones, and even the valuable gold and copper included in small amounts in each phone. State and federal agencies have encouraged initiatives to recycle cell phones and cell phone accessories, as they do with all electronic waste; in some states, such as California, such recycling is mandatory. Although often ignored, such laws have succeeded in increasing the recycling rate somewhat; the Environmental Protection Agency reported that the recycling rate for cell phones was 10 percent from 2006 to 2007 compared with 18 percent for electronic waste in general. Of the 140 million cell phones that got disposed of that year, 14 million got recycled, and the remaining 126 million were simply thrown away. A number of charities accept donated cell phones, which have their data wiped and got refurbished for reuse. (Heeks, 26-33)

One reason electronic waste is such a growing concern, is that there is more to a discarded cell phone that just its plastic casing. The small amounts of metals used, although harmless when inside a phone carried in your pocket, are dangerous when they build up in the environment, as they do when hundreds, thousands, or millions of phones got thrown away. Lead, which used to solder the circuit boards inside the phone, is extremely toxic to humans if it enters the water supply and can interfere with the development of young children. Mercury, present in some batteries, is deadly to the nervous system and the development of unborn babies. Cadmium and beryllium can contribute to cancer, as well as damage the organs. And although they are present in our phones in small amounts, the highly toxic poisons antimony and arsenic used in cell phone batteries and battery contacts can poison our soil and water supply. Simply from an anti-waste perspective, cell phones also include precious metals gold, silver, platinum, palladium, rhodium, copper, tin, brass, and zinc, which can be extracted and recycled. ...