What do you do with your old phone when buying one? Some people would recycle their device or trade it in, while others, however, would just keep their mobile phones in the closets or throw it in the trash.
This is exactly what the international non-profit Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Forum (WEEE) recently discovered, as part of its International E-Waste Day on Friday, October 14, 2016. According to them, out of 16 billion mobile phones being used worldwide, 5.3 billion will become e-waste in 2022 (via Digital Trends).
The WEEE Forum stated that if phones had a normal depth of 9 millimeters and were placed on top of one another, the stack would be greater than 31,000 miles/50,000 kilometers. This is 20 times higher than the International Space Station, with a one-eightth degree going to the moon.
"Despite their valuable gold, copper, silver, palladium, and other recyclable components, experts anticipate that a majority of mobile phones will disappear into drawers, closets, cupboards, or garages, or are thrown into garbage bins for landfills or incineration," the forum said in a blog post.
The theme of this year''s E-Waste Day at the WEEE Forum is: Recycle it all, no matter how small.
"We focused this year on small e-waste items because it''s very simple for them to accumulate unnoticed in houses or to be tossed into the ordinary garbage bin," said the director of the WEEE Forum. "People tend not to realize that all these seemingly unnoticed items have a lot of value, and together at a global level.
According to the forum, mobile phones are one of the most widely used small electronic devices today.
The WEEE Forum conducted a survey involving 8,775 European households in six countries representing the European Union to understand why people keep up their old gadgets rather than recycling or replacing them.
I''ll try to do it again in the future (46%).
I plan to sell my vehicle/give it away (15%).
It has a sentimental value (13%).
In the near future, it might be of value (9%).
I do not know how to dispose of it (7%).
Didn''t have time, forgot about it, and does not take up too much space (3%)
Planned use in secondary residence (3%)
Presence of sensitive data (2%)
There is no motivation to recycle (1%).
I might do it again in the future (46%).
I intend to sell it/enable it (15%).
It has a sense of belonging (13%).
It might have a lot of value in the future (9%).
(7%): I do not know how to dispose of it.
Didn''t have enough time, was ashamed, didn''t take up too much space (3%).
Planned use in secondary residence (3%)
Presence of sensitive data (2%)
1%) is inciting to recycle.
Samsung''s recycling program included only 0.0019% of old phones that it sold since 2015. It is assumed that some of these devices are still being used by the original purchaser, sold in the second-hand market, or even taken out as general waste.
"Over the past decade, the growth in generated e-waste has increased significantly than the growth in recycling," according to Dr. Kees Balde, a leading researcher at the Global e-Waste Monitor. "Thus, it is important to remember people that every single piece of electronics or electrical device is forgotten about in household drawers."