What to think about before throwing your phone away:

1. Do you absolutely need it, or is it a want?
2. Think about where your phone is going to end up.
Just because you don’t have the old phone anymore, doesn’t mean that the impact stops there. You can’t see the phone, but the toxins from that waste will continue to affect the environment long after you have forgotten it.

What Can I Do?

1. Dispose wisely. Research local policies for cell phone recycling or donations. Surprisingly, many states are requiring businesses to have a cell phone recycling system in order to conduct business.
2. Donate your old phone. If it still works, give it to someone who could really use it. Many non-profit organizations have a donation bin for old phones that go to domestic violence victims or soldiers overseas
3. Sell it. Different websites like eBay and Craigslist are excellent ways to sell merchandise. It’s easy to arrange and you can get a few bucks out of it.
Remember, these little things are helping the environment a little bit every day.

Green Living

• Is your cell phone polluting your health and the environment?

As part of our “throwaway” society coupled with our voracious appetite for cell phone consumption and usage means that landfills are becoming clogged at an alarming rate with not only computers and other electronic components, but cell phones as not many people are aware of proper disposal procedures for them.

Sadly, it is estimated that over 125 million cell phones are tossed every year, creating over 65,000 tons of garbage.  Knowing that the landfill doesn’t have to be the end point of your cell phones life can greatly reduce the amount of unnecessary wastage produced each year. Many cell phone users are worried about cell phone radiation but the real danger is in the physical phone itself.

The reason why cell phone recycling is important is because they contain some pretty toxic stuff (which could be a cause for concerns with cell phone radiation) embedded inside their circuitry and displays, toxins such as Arsenic, Lead, and Copper, in addition to Cadmium, Mercury and Beryllium (a carcinogen which has been linked to cancer), hazardous chemicals you wouldn’t want leaching into the environment.   If disposed of correctly they contain non toxic materials that can be recycled and used again, yet instead we pollute the earth even more by trying to produce these components over again from scratch when in reality we already have the base materials we need without having to strip anymore from our limited natural resources.

Unfortunately, no landfill is 100% safe and it is the toxins that leach from these materials into the ground which pollutes our water table and our drinkable water supply.  Currently less than 1% of the entire earth’s water is drinkable so we must take steps to protect it.

Studies from the University of Northwest Indiana http://www.iun.edu/~environw/landfills.html have revealed that a whopping 82% of landfills in Northwest Indiana alone experienced leaks, a frightening statistic when you consider how much harm it poses to the surrounding environment and that the effects such as migration of methane gas and leaching contaminants cannot be isolated.

So toxic are the emissions from landfills that living within a close proximity of one can affect health such as low birth weight in newborns, shorter height than the general population and heart defects and liver abnormalities to name a few.  If these are just some of the side effects from landfills, imagine what we are throwing into them.  These figures may be for Northwest Indiana but apply on a grand scale because not all landfills are safe.

Our landfills are becoming so overrun with discarded electronics in our technology hungry society that unless we do something, we will run out of land to accommodate it all and the resources with which to make them.

Needs Before Wants

Before you decide to throw out your old cell phone in exchange for a new one, think for a moment if you absolutely need it or is because you want the coolest new style?  If your older model is still working fine, do you really need to buy a new one?  What else could that money be spent on?

Think about where that cell phone will end up.  Just because it disappears from plain sight as it heads for the landfill doesn’t mean its impact stops there.  The effects of your old cell phone will continue to be felt long after your memory of it has faded.

What Can I Do?

Dispose wisely.  Each state and country has different requirements.  With a little research, you can find out your local policies as well as where you can go for donating or recycling.

Currently there are no federal mandates on the issue of recycling cell phones, but many states are implementing measures of their own.

Several states are passing legislation requiring business owners to have a recycling system established in order to do business.  They will not be able to legally sell their products if they do not have this system in place.

Disposal doesn’t have to be the end of the road.  Why not give your old cell phone another lease on life and adopt it out to a good home?

You can donate them to a worthy cause, for example www.wadt.org is a nonprofit organization that accepts cell phone donations for victims of domestic violence.

How about reselling it on eBay or Craigslist?

Here’s another fantastic one, there are actual businesses that will pay you up to $50 for your old cell phone, they make it extremely easy to arrange and will even pay for postage and handling.

Now there is no excuse not to recycle or re-use your old cell phone and feel good in the knowledge that you helped keep our earth a little cleaner because ultimately these little things make a big difference.

Green Living

• Cell Phone Pollution….What’s the Solution?