Buy a new computer and you’re likely to find out that it isn’t just your kids that don’t want the old one. Yesterday’s technology is often as out of vogue as last week’s fish. And although the progress being made toward recycling of digital devices has a long way to go, one product that apparently has continued value, regardless of the age of the devices, is the mobile phone. The recycling of mobile phones, notably portable handsets, is very well established, and could possibly serve as a model for the rest of the consumer electronics and computer industries.
While it is hard to get takers for an old PC or printer, getting someone to take a mobile phone isn’t all that hard. Jeff Zeigler, CEO of TechTurn, a company devoted to technology recovery, refurbishing and remarketing, said, “Those systems for recycling work fantastically today. The wireless carrier, the retailer and the OEM all want your phone back.”
However, though the phones might be wanted, it seems that consumers aren’t giving them up. A study from iSuppli’s ConsumerTrak service found that in the last quarter of 2007 only one in 10 US consumers actually recycled their mobile phone. The study further shows that only about 5.7 percent of phones were returned to retail, and that more than a third of the handsets, 36.8 percent were simply “stored away” and could just be “collecting dust in closets.”
More disturbing was that 10.2 percent of US consumers surveyed admitted that the phones were simply discarded, either thrown away or stolen in Q4. The US Environmental Protection Agency actually estimates that Americans discard 125 million phones each year, creating 65,000 tons of waste. That’s a lot of phones, with some nasty parts that aren’t all that environmentally friendly.
Yet before Al Gore goes out and makes another movie, we are finding some good news and the convenient truth is that about 15.5 percent of users actually gave away their old phones to friends or family, while another 8.5 were donated to a charity. So maybe being green with a mobile device isn’t that hard after all.