With cellular phones becoming more affordable, there seems to be few barriers to having one or more handsets. But, what do you with your old handsets in a market that is constantly being swamped by phones with new features? The answer to this will be: the old mobile phones even though they are perfectly operational are thrown away in some corners of your home or are sold to the local dealers without knowing the fact that what happens to them afterwards?
All the old mobile phones contain metals and materials which can pose a serious threat to the environment if not disposed properly.
Some important facts about Mobile Recycling:
- E-waste is one of the fastest growing waste streams worldwide , it constitutes more than 5% of solid waste generated
- For every 515 cell phones recycled, it saves enough energy to power one home for a year.
- There are 6.7 million people on this planet and 61% have cell phone subscription i.e. 4.1 billion mobile phones.
- Each phone emits 112kgs of Co2 every year.
- If all mobile phones are charged whole day, it would waste enough electricity to power 28000 homes.
- 4 mobile phones per second end up in landfill in a year.
- Leeching 80,000 lbs of leads into the earth.
- Those Mobile phones are 4.7 tonnes of Gold worth 56 million dollars and 49 tonnes of silver worth 8.4 million dollar.
- If all the thrown away Mobile phones are recycled, it would save enough energy to power 2, 72,000 homes.
- To charge every mobile-phone in use on earth would require approx. 5, 84,000 gallons of gas and produce 35,000,000 pounds of Carbon-di-oxide.
- If we charge our mobile phones half as often it would be the equivalent of taking half a million cars off the road
- Poor controls over e-waste recycling methods can cause groundwater contamination, air pollution, water pollution, and health effects in those directly involved.
- 90% of e-waste is recycled through the informal sector
For this reason, it is vitally important to recycle mobile phones instead of throwing them away.
Saving the World isn’t tough, Start recycling your Mobile phones.
