CleanScapes Tip: don't upgrade your cell phone

There are many ways we can stop waste before it happens. Every week, CleanScapes emails tips on how to reduce waste as part of the Neighborhood Waste Reduction Rewards program.

On the Line

In our fast-paced world, technology is changing by the second, and with it the opportunity to buy the latest and greatest electronic toys and gadgets.

Cell phones are perhaps the best example of this: when a new cell phone feature is announced, we are all encouraged to take out our wallets, remove our SIM cards and swap-up.

This rapid replacement cycle creates electronic waste and promotes a false impression that electronics, like cell phones, are easy to dispose of.

Help reduce electronic waste and conserve natural resources by choosing not to upgrade your cell phone annually. Cell phones contain heavy metals and environmental toxins, and are not allowed in the garbage in Shoreline.

When your cell phone is ready to be replaced, take your phone to a local recycling collection point:

• Goodwill
• Deseret
• Shoreline Transfer Station
• Shoreline Police Station
• Lake Forest Park City Hall

Shorewood High School

According to Shorewood Special Ed teacher Veronica Cook "You can also donate your used cell phones and ink cartridges to Shorewood High School. We are able to receive money for recycling them. This money helps support our community based program for medically fragile students. Please consider recycling them with us first."

Other recycling places are Office Depot, Staples, Best Buy, and Target.

Other Resources:

Take It Back Network

US EPA Cell Phone Recycling Resources

The Big Picture

Every day 427,000 cell phones are disposed of in the US(1).

Cell phones are made using mined, raw materials including copper, gold, lead, nickel, zinc, beryllium, tantalum, coltan, cobalt, cadmium, and other metals; crude oil for plastic; sand and limestone for fiberglass; and glass and mercury for the LCD screen. Cell phone batteries are made using lithium metallic oxide and carbon-based materials, all mined from the earth.

Many of these materials are known as “persistent toxins” and can stay in the environment for long periods of time, even after disposal.

By using your current cell phone as long as you can, donating your used phones to reuse programs, and recycling unusable phones, you will help conserve natural resources and reduce the accumulation of persistent toxins in the environment.