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EPA urges public to recycle cellphones at designated shops

As much as 80 percent of the average cellphone is made of recyclable materials, but only 20 percent of cellphones are recycled, posing a potential environmental threat because of the heavy metals inside, Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) officials said at a press conference yesterday.

Teaming up with Taiwan Mobile (TM) and recycling agency All Right Consultant & Development Co, the administration called on the public to begin bringing in their old mobiles to shops that recycle them, including all TM's 506 "myfone" service stations around the nation.

"Most old cellphones are disposed of in the trash, which then either goes into incinerators or landfill," EPA Deputy Minister Chang Tzi-chin (張子敬) said.

Since more than 7 million new cellphones were sold nationwide last year, it could be deduced that millions of old ones containing lead, mercury, cadmium, beryllium, PVC and brominated flame retardants were recklessly released into the environment either by burning or by contact with soil, he said.

Besides dangerous byproducts in the cellphones themselves, cellphone batteries also contain high amounts of cadmium that can contaminate the soil and water, leading to liver and kidney dysfunction when ingested by humans, he said.

By collecting old cellphones, the metals will not only not harm the environment, they can be extracted and reused, he said.

In view of the mounting need for humans to stop polluting the environment, TM contracted All Right to recycle cellphones for them, TM president Harvey Chang (張孝威) said.

"Consumers, regardless of where they originally purchased the cellphone, can go to any `myfone' center and recycle their old phones," he said, adding that those who do would receive a solar-powered flashlight.

The process of recycling phones is literally like turning garbage into gold, since "once in the recycling plant the phones are processed and separated into plastic particles, glass fibers and metal particles, including valuable metals such as gold and silver," Harvey Chang said.

"For every 66,000 phone collected, 1kg of gold can be yielded -- the metals collected can help reduce the need for additional mining of metal ores," he said.

To ensure cellphones are indeed recycled, "collection trucks are equipped with GPS systems to track their routes and ensure the cellphones are not resold," he said.

"The investment [to recycle] is small, but the gain of having a green environment is priceless," he said.
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