Waste mobile phones and batteries contain lots of poisonous substances that can gradually leak out to pollute the ground and water systems, posing a new threat to the already battered environment. It is estimated that about 800,000 mobile phones are renewed each year in Shanghai, and more than 60,000 are thrown into dustbins each month. Experts are urging the city to build a waste mobile phone recycling system as soon as possible.
Shanghai’s mobile phone subscribers now number more than 7 million. Mobile phones are being updated so quickly that several dozen new varieties tend to be introduced each year. Some young people even change their mobile phone within a couple of months, and then throw away the unwanted old one into the dustbin.
Without any disposal system, waste mobile phones have to be buried or burnt as common rubbish. But they contain such poisonous metals as arsenic, mercury and nickel, and these have become a “time bomb” for the environment. Once the recycling system for waste mobile phones is completed, phones can be classified and disposed of in accordance with international practice, said the experts.
(China.org.cn by Li Jingrong on September 12, 2002)
