Cell Phone Recycling and the Poison in Our Cell Phones

There are over 262 million cell phone subscribers in the US today. On the average, cell phone users replace old units every 18 months - over 100 million units are discarded every year. About 20 percent of these old phones are recycled or sent back to manufacturers for proper disposal. What is alarming is that 10% of these obsolete phones are thrown away by users - that's over 10 million cellular phones sent to rot and leach dangerous chemicals in our landfills.

Don't throw away those cell phones

If you're thinking of replacing your old cell phone with a new one, throwing it away should never be an option. Here's why:

Cell phones and other electronic waste like TV sets, CRT monitors contain extremely toxic heavy metals and chemicals in batteries, circuit boards, and casing. Once landfilled, poisonous chemicals from mobile phones like lead, cadmium, mercury, polyvinyl chhloride (pvc), brominated flame retardants (BFRs), etc. can potentially contaminate nearby water sources and surrounding soil.

How dangerous are these chemicals and metals?

Lead

Lead, found in cellular phone batteries and old computer monitors, is a poisonous metal that can damage nervous connections (especially in young children) and cause blood and brain disorders. Long term exposure to lead or its salts (especially soluble salts or the strong oxidant PbO2) can result to complications like kidney damage, reduced IQ, slowed body growth, abdominal pain, and permanent mental damage.

According to Dr. Anne Marie Helmenstine, author and leading authority in biomedical sciences, lead has been found to cause development problems in children and diminishes brain functions even in adults. In a recent publication, Dr. Kim Dietrich from the University of Cincinnati, has associated lead exposure during childhood to deviant criminal behavior in adults. According to Dr.Dietrich's report, their findings "implicate early exposure to lead as a risk factor for behaviors leading to criminal arrest."

Compared to a TV set or an old CRT monitor, many of which can contain as much as 5 lbs. of lead, mobile phones contain only traces of this dangerous metal. However, because of the sheer number of cell phones that get dumped in landfills each year, the problem has increased exponentially - the 500 million cell phones now rotting in our landfills could potentially leak more than 300,000 lbs. of lead into the surrounding soil and water systems.

Mercury

Found in cellular phone batteries, mercury is a toxic chemical that affects the immune system, alters genetic and enzyme systems, and damages the nervous system, including coordination and the senses of touch, taste, and sight. Developing embryos - babies in their mothers' wombs - are particularly vulnerable, being 5 to 10 times more sensitive to the effects of mercury than adults.

"Mercury in any form is toxic," according to Dr. Barry M. Diner of Emory University. "Neurologic, gastrointestinal, and renal systems are the most commonly affected organ systems in mercury exposure."

Cadmium

The US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has determined cadmium and cadmium compounds to be human carcinogens. Found in cell phone batteries, exposure to cadmium can also lead to decrease in bone density, lung damage, and kidney problems.

Toxic Flame Retardants

Brominated Flame Retardants (BFR) and decabromodiphenyl ether (decaBDE) are among the most widely used chemicals in the electronics industry providing coating for cell phone casing, etc. Numerous studies have shown the adverse health and environmental impacts of these chemicals - being possible carcinogens and endocrine disruptors. EPA recently announced that beginning in 2013, the US will "will end production, use, and sales of the chemical in the United States." Still, millions have cell phones coated with these chemicals are already out there, endangering everyone's health.

Many of our municipal and city landfills today are engineered to prevent harmful chemicals generated by solid waste from spilling or reaching the surrounding areas and water systems. But no system is foolproof, and landfill chemicals will always have the lethal potential to contaminate our waterways and agricultural lands where food crops are grown. This year, The New York Times reported that 90% of all fish harvested in our lakes and rivers contain dangerous amounts of mercury. Where do you think does that come from?

Recycle cell phones

Clearly, the only viable option - if we want to protect the environment and our health - is to recycle cell phones. mobile phone recycling will not only prevent those highly-toxic chemicals from ever reaching our landfills, it will make sure that useful metals found in cellular phones like gold, silver, coltan etc. are kept in the production stream. This lowers the demand for fresh raw material and decreases energy consumption and carbon emissions associated with producing or mining for new materials.

As the world now grapples with the environmental problems brought about by our excesses, we're also gradually learning that there is really nothing that we do that does not affect the environment and - a little bit down the road - people. Those old phones that we've heedlessly thrown away will someday come back to haunt us through the food that we eat and the water that we drink.

The earth is not a receptacle for our cell phones and electronic waste, let's recycle cell phones today.

Recycle Mobile Phone - Do Your Bit For the Environment

The mobile phones have made our lives easier to a considerable extent. One can be connected to the loved almost from any part of the world and at almost at point of time. This innovation has done a lot to us. But on a very practical note, a handset cannot last for a lifetime. We, very often, change the handset when it stops working or gets too old to be repaired. Now, here comes a question as to what do you do with the old phone? Do you dump it somewhere, trough in the corner of a cupboard of the house, give it to the children on the street to play with or anything else? This is where the recycle mobile phone comes into picture. Some of the leading brands from the arena of handset production have come forward to lay emphasis on the importance and the need of recycling phones. One can wonder as to what is the need of the recycle? For them, it becomes necessary to know that the handsets contain various substances which may cause harm to the environment and recycling prevent these harmful substances from being exposed to the environment.

The leading brands have set up recycling centre and collection points where an individual can drop the phone. One gets a certain amount as a reward for this act, this amount varies from handset to handset and at the same the on the present status of the handset. Here, it is very much important to know that what happens to a mobile phone when it is sent to a recycling centre. At the recycling centers, the phones are first examined whether they can be set right or not, if it is found that the device can be made faults free, they are sent to the different section where the phones are repaired. When the handsets become usable, they are sent to the poor countries. In the considerably poor countries, it is rather tough for the individuals to afford a handset. With the help of recycling process, even the poor become able to afford the devices at lower rates. Even they could now talk to the loved ones. When it is found that the phones cannot made free of glitches, it is sent to a different section where the useful parts of the phone are taken out and the remaining are crushed after removing the harmful substances. The plastic used in the casings of the device is reprocessed and further used in the formation of the different things. Thus, a handset is completely recycled.

It is, indeed, our responsibility to think seriously about our environment, we should be careful and should try to keep as clean as possible. The recycle mobile phones are something which should be promoted as they help us keep the environment secure enough. Today, with the advent of internet, there are a good number of online websites which are dedicated to provide the users with the full information related to phone recycle. Interestingly, today there are various dealers who are dealing in the recycling of the devices, one can easily visit their website from the comforts of the home and can get the full information of the same.

You can sell mobile phone to a good phone recycling company and reduce pollution that constantly enters environment from an unused, broken or non - working mobile phones. I am determined to keep our environment clean to live and pass on a neat and clean eco-system to our next generations. For it to happen, I just need to sell my mobile to a mobile phone recycling company, which can provide me good cash on exchange of old phones.

Mobile Phone Recycling - Different Ways For Recycling Old Phones

Every second day, a new mobile phone is being launched. We being techno savvy and with our never ending want to remain upgraded, we keep changing our mobile phones regularly. We just keep the old phones in the drawers and the cupboard. This is reducing the values of those cell phones. According to a research, average worth of such unused phones is around £22.40 each and the total value of such unused devices can be well over £1 billion. That is quite a huge sum. Realizing this aspect, several companies are getting into recycling of mobile phones. These companies are purchasing such mobile phones and recycling them. Those unused phones are either used for repairing other cell phones or resold to the users who are looking out for similar cell phones at reduced prices.

Recycling mobile phones for charity is becoming a popular practice. The companies are taking the unused phones from the users and disposing the devices to help the charities by donating certain part of the profits. The consumers, if they wish, can donate the complete value of recycled mobile phones to the charities. This shows that recycling mobile phones have social relevance too.

Are you interested in doing such recycling of your unused mobile phones? The best way to do that is visiting the websites of mobile phone recycling. These websites ask for type of model and the condition of the phone. You need to input the information in the required field. Based on your provided information, you will be shown the price that these companies will be paying. If you agree to a certain price, you need to do the further proceedings. Then your selected company will send you a package where you need to send your old mobile phone. If the mobile is in the same condition as mentioned earlier, the company will send you a cheque. This whole process takes around one month time.

You can also sell your unused mobile phone by doing auction. Get into an auction website like eBay and try to sell your device. However, there is no guarantee that your mobile will be sold and you will get the price. No matter which way to select to sell my mobile phone, it is always better to protect from damages or scratches. Try to keep the original packaging of the phone as it increases the saleability and price of the unused phone during the recycling of the phone.

Mobile Phone Recycling - Best Deal With Amusing Benefits

Human nature always wants to explore new and innovative things every time. And because of their nature a person will get bored with his old mobile phone after short period of time. The procedure of mobile phone recycling appears to be extremely beneficial and enables you to get rid of your old mobile device in the best possible manner to pave way for the acquisition of a new one. If you fall under the category of those people who no longer want to use old handsets, because of some deformities the devices poses, then, just go for the recycling process at the earliest.

It has been estimated that phone recycling is no longer a new concept to human behavior. This is not even a tough task to perform. All you need to do is to give your mobile to the most suitable and authentic recycling companies which in-return will pay you back value money for your product. After knowing such simple things about recycling process first thing that would strike your mind is how can I recycle or sell my mobile for money? and the answer is simple than the process. These mobile recycling companies facilitates user with ample of buyers who purchase old devices and get them recycled. phone extracts the usable materials and elements from the old non-working gadgets and disposes them off in the best possible and most-effective manner.

Herculean chemicals are there such as Cadmium, Rhodium, Palladium, Beryllium, Lead, Nickel, Manganese, Mercury, Lithium, Zinc, Arsenic and Copper which are known for spoiling the environment. So, it becomes even more necessary for every individual to play a significant role in maintaining the ecological balance of our planet earth. Addition to this, another advantage counts on re-consumption of those old repaired mobile gadget by under developed countries.

After repairing them, they export those products to developing nations and play a helping hand in equipping more and more people with the mobile phones. You will never find yourself in a exasperate situation for finding the right recyclers. There are number of authentic dealers available on websites which facilitate mobile phone recycling. They do their business with the top retailers of the area and ensure to give many advantages along with the value money which is paid by them.