Voluntary cell-phone recycling is an utter failure
Mercury News Editorial April 24, 2006
When California belatedly woke up to the problem of electronic waste, it quickly became a leader in the search for solutions. In 2003, the state passed a pioneering law establishing a mechanism to recycle televisions and computer monitors. Another law that prohibits disposal in the trash of old computers, cell phones, digital cameras, batteries and even iPods went into effect in February. And as of July 1, cell phone sellers will be required to take back old phones for recycling. But a recent report on the paltry levels of cell phone recycling nationwide suggests that until consumers have a pain-free way to dispose of their e-waste, old cell phones and other discarded electronic items will continue to end up in landfills, where they can leach dangerous chemicals such as lead, arsenic and mercury. The report by Washington, D.C.-based Earthworks, an environmental group, found that fewer than 2 percent of the 130 million cell phones discarded in the United States each year are being recycled. Some may be collecting dust in dresser drawers, but many are just tossed in the trash. While all four major carriers -- Verizon, Cingular, Sprint and TMobile -- have voluntary take-back programs for old cell phones, Earthworks gave those programs a failing grade. The problems Earthworks found ranged from poor advertisement of the programs on corporate Web sites and in stores, to collection boxes that, when available, were hard to find, to company employees who were poorly informed about the existence of the programs. Compare that with Japan, where recycling programs are widely advertised, where some carriers offer prizes to customers who turn in phones for recycling and others have special programs to destroy the data inside phones in order to allay consumer fears that their personal information could be misused. It's not surprising then that cell phone recycling rates in Japan have been as high as 35 percent. The industry has said it can take care of the problem of e-waste through voluntary initiatives. But so far, its efforts have been underwhelming. And that may force Congress to do what California has done and make e-waste recycling mandatory.