The Consumer
Small but significant step in recycling high-tech items
By Linda Bolido
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 23:23:00 05/14/2008
MANILA, Philippines—Don’t put that old mobile phone and/or its battery with your other household or office trash. These are complex items with all sorts of components needing special handling.
In case you have not noticed, you can now “return” those items to their manufacturers so they are disposed of properly. There are signs in some major commercial centers telling you just where and how you can dispose of old cellular phones and their batteries. A project of the Board of Investments, it is being supported by all major mobile phone manufacturers—Alcatel, LG Electronics, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson, as well as network providers Globe, Smart and Sun and selected malls, including the Ayala group, Ortigas and SM chain.
The Japan International Cooperation Agency is providing technical assistance.
At the Glorietta, for instance, you will find bins for your old mobile phone or battery. There are large posters identifying them. So, if you have a phone that has completely died and cannot be resold or passed on to a relative, give it and the old battery a “decent funeral” and protect the environment from whatever non-biodegradable and potentially toxic components they contain.
Nikka Abes of Nokia adds that the mobile phone company also has its own “takeback and recycling program.” Abes says Nokia phone owners can soon expect to see new recycle bins at Nokia Care Centers that “have been designated as takeback and recycling points. The old phones and accessories that we get are then sent to a Singapore recycling plant.”
Abes also provides the following information.
65-80 percent of a Nokia mobile phone can now be recycled.
The company has collection points for recycling used mobile phones and accessories in 85 countries. It is engaged in collection campaigns with retailers, operators, other manufacturers and local authorities around the world.
It works with qualified recyclers around the world to ensure proper end-of-life treatment of used devices.
Getting manufacturers to recycle old phones is a small but significant step in ensuring that people dispose of old gadgets properly, thus reducing the risk to the environment and to the health and life of living things, including humans.
Recycling major appliances
The New York Times reported that the Big Apple’s city council is planning to pass an ordinance that will require appliance manufacturers to collect their old and no longer reusable products for proper disposal. Though the Times said Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg had some reservations about the original proposed ordinance, the council was determined to have a legislation signed before a government regulation requiring a total shift to digital television took effect two or three years from now.
Just imagine how many TV sets will be consigned to the rubbish heap, considering that American households usually have more than one unit. And the TV sets are not tiny pieces that can easily be tossed into a dump site. Americans usually want a virtual movie theater at home, buying the biggest screen available.
Many Filipinos are moving in that direction so our local governments, if not the national government, should really start thinking about working with manufacturers on the proper disposal of big ticket items. As it is, our bodies of water—rivers, seas, lakes, even tiny esteros—have become burial sites for discarded appliances. Just ask those environmentalists who do an annual cleanup of our waterways. They have even found old cars at the bottom of a river or sea.
At the moment, the disposal of old appliances is still a relatively minor problem considering the fact many Filipinos cannot afford to buy brand-new stuff. Repair shops do brisk business making discarded refrigerators, TV, air-conditioners, etc. work again either for reuse by their original owners or so they can be sold to people who cannot afford to own such items otherwise.
But there is a limit to how often you can repair these things. Eventually, you reach a point where buying a new item makes more sense than spending for necessary spare parts. However, there are elements in these appliances that cannot be disposed of the way you would potato peelings. They need special and specialized handling.
Let’s hope the cell-phone recycling is just the first step in an effective and efficient recycling effort.
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