Q: My family of two adults and three teenagers recently moved to a new home.
As we were cleaning out closets and packing boxes, we collected a total of nine
cell phones that we are no longer using. I just threw them in the trash as they
surfaced. But the other day, someone in my office told me that was a terrible
thing to do and said we should have recycled them. I recall that, at the time, I
briefly wondered about how to do that but, in the chaos of moving, it was just
one more thing I didn’t have time for. Did I commit an “environmental sin”?
A: Yes, you should most definitely have taken the time to recycle those cell
phones. The potential human health and environmental impacts of cell phone waste
are grim.
Cell phones are considered hazardous waste because they contain lead, copper,
mercury, cadmium and arsenic. If they are thrown in the trash and sent to
incinerators or landfills, environmental contamination can occur from combustion
and leaching into soil and groundwater. Many of the materials found in cell
phones are also on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) list of
persistent bioaccumulative toxins (PBTs). Because PBTs accumulate in fatty
tissue of humans and animals, the toxins are gradually concentrated, putting
those at the top of the food chain at the greatest risk, especially children.
According to the EPA, “PBTs are associated with a range of adverse human health
effects, including damage to the nervous system, reproductive and developmental
problems, cancer and genetic impacts.” And, since it’s estimated that there is
now one cell phone for every two persons on Earth, that’s a lot of danger!
Because cell phones have crossed the divide between rich and poor, as well as
all national and ethnic barriers, their impact on the environment is global. In
some countries, it is commonplace to . . .
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Wendy Priesnitz is Natural Life's editor and a
journalist with 35 years of experience.
