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The Terminator Mandates Total Recall |
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Written by Adam Gosling
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Tuesday, 04 July 2006 |
California State Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has
signed a bill into law which compels companies that sell cellular phones or rechargeable
batteries to take them back for free recycling.
Like most electronics equipment, mobile phones are filled
with potentially toxic substances such as lead and copper. The also take up more
landfill if they are just thrown away.
California
has already made it illegal for consumers to just trash electronics such as
computers, printers, batteries and mobile phones. Now they have somewhere to
take them... back to where they bought them from.
The laws are the first of their kind in the US, but public
campaigns by environmental groups are likely to force other States to follow
suit.
Reportedly less than 2 per cent of American cell phones are
currently recycled which translates to more than 100 million phones in landfill
per year.
In Australia,
the move to mobile phone recycling is way behind, Vodafone has a small voluntary program, we know of, but computer companies have
been stepping up their efforts in this area.
Hewlett
Packard recently announced it had partnered with Domayne to provide
incentives for recyclers. This weekend (8/9 July, 2006) Sydney shoppers will be
able to get 25 percent discounts on HP printers and consumables and 10 percent
on desktops and notebooks by recycling their unwanted IT products (from any
manufacturer).
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