Electronics Waste: Recycling of Mobile Phones

Inappropriate disposal of cellphones affect environmental quality—an analysis of Brazilian users

“…However, as described by Milovantseva and Saphores (), although there are efforts by regulators (e.g., in Europe, the United States, and China) as well as consumer protection agencies that have pressed the creation of regulations prohibiting some toxic materials (such as lead) in the manufacturing of products in certain countries, there are still many electronic products with potentially hazardous materials. According to Tanskanen (), the biggest obstacle to recycling is the lack of consumer awareness about the need for gathering the waste, leading to low collection rates of these materials. Without the return of discarded products, there is no recycling through appropriate techniques and processes.…”

“…Fast economic growth and people's improved quality of life have contributed to increased consumption of electro‐electronic goods, which, consequently, has produced an increased amount of wastes after the disposal of the used products. According to Tanskanen (), countries in the European Union are already producing on average of 17 kg of electronic waste (e‐waste) per year, while developing countries, such as China and India, produce approximately 1.0 kg. In the United States, according to Milovantseva and Saphores (), e‐waste represents the fastest growing fraction of urban wastes, and these numbers are expected to increase in the coming years.…”

“…Hazardous substances can contaminate the environment or put at risk people's health and safety during the waste disposal process. Examples of improper disposal of electronic waste are widely found in the literature (Ladou & Lovegrove, ; Leonard, ; Lundgren, ; Saphores, Ogunseitan, & Shapiro, ; Soo & Doolan, ), even though there is a trend in the electronics industry to remove some of the potentially dangerous materials from the products they manufacture, thus minimizing the risk of contamination (Tanskanen, ). In addition, there have been incentives for companies to design and make products that incorporate materials of less toxicity and, consequently, pose less environmental risk (Renner, ).…”

Theory Building of Quattro Bottom Line Approach for Sustainable Reverse Logistics from Government Perspective: The Indonesia Evidence

“…Along with the highest rate of electronic products replacement, increase also the amount of e-waste, while, only a few of them are recycled. Nokia mobile phone survey noted that only 9% of ewaste mobile phones are recycled in India and China, and only 1% in Nigeria and Indonesia [6]. The biggest role in recycling activities comes from informal businesses [7] that pay more attention only to target profit achievement and do not care with the environment.…”

The Political Economy of Rare Earth Elements

“…While in both contexts the main behavior is to keep the phone as a spare, more people tend to give it to friends or family (24 percent), to sell it or trade it for a new one (18 percent) in non-mature markets than in mature markets (respectively 18 percent and 9 percent). As a result of these behavioral trends, 12 percent of phones were being recycled in 2011 in developed countries, but only 5 percent in developing markets (Tanskanen, 2012. Again, these are very dynamic figures which are bound to evolve.…”