It is clear from news reports around the world that there is a growing momentum to recycle mobile phones and other electronic products. Mobile phone manufacturers are continually striving to establish a “greener edge” over their competitors. Some of the impetus for this comes from environmental pressure groups such as Greenpeace who publish league tables that name and shame poor performers. There is also the legislative imperative in many developed countries to build products to high environmental standards. The developing world is also following suit and countries such as India are considering introducing new laws to slow down the damage to the environment.
However, in most cases there are still far too many products going to landfill and mobile phones present a growing problem. They are often discarded well before the end of their useful lives, but instead of consumers returning them for reuse, they are left in drawers and eventually thrown away in the rubbish. This means devices containing toxic materials end up potentially contaminating soil and groundwater, instead of being reclaimed and reused. In the case of precious metals this also creates more demand to mine these rare substances.
There are a growing number of initiatives in various countries to offer cash in return for old mobiles, but despite trying to explain to consumers that prompt recycling of recent handsets fetches the best price, recycling rates remain low. This points to the need for stricter regimes to ensure consumers return their mobiles for recycling, perhaps as a condition for receiving a new handset.