Mobile phone waste management in developing countries: A case of Sri Lanka

Zhang

J of Consumer Behaviour

et al. 2018

E‐waste is recognized as the fastest growing waste stream in the world. It contains toxic substances such as heavy metals and flame retardants that are hazardous to human and ecological health. Despite these environmental and health hazards, the vast majority of consumers are reluctant to dispose of e‐waste and prefer to store obsolete products at home instead of returning them to manufacturers for recycling. To address this alarming problem, we use the basic psychological needs theory (BPNT) and word of mouth (WOM) to profile consumer behaviour changes and explain self‐reported consumer e‐waste disposal behaviours. Based on longitudinal survey data collected over two rounds from Pakistan, the findings support the role of BPNT. Particularly, the results show that positive WOM messages about e‐waste disposal significantly improve consumers' self‐determined needs that, in turn, fuel consumers' integrated motivation for e‐waste and subsequent e‐waste disposal behaviours. The implications of these findings for practitioners regarding consumer behavioural changes are discussed in‐depth.

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Linking self‐determined needs and word of mouth to consumer e‐waste disposal behaviour: A test of basic psychological needs theory

Zhang

J of Consumer Behaviour

et al. 2018

“…This hoarding behaviour is problematic, as it hinders recycling efforts, and occurs across regions, irrespective of the wealth of a country and its citizens (e.g. United Kingdom, [11]; Kenya, [27]; Sri Lanka, [28]; Australia, [29]; Philippines, [30]; Norway, [31]; Japan, [10]; Switzerland & Liechtenstein [25]; Spain [32]; Austria [33]; Nepal [34]). Mobile phones are also hoarded by people in China [3], with higher rates reported for smartphones [35].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recycling 115,369 mobile phones for gorilla conservation over a six-year period (2009-2014) at Zoos Victoria: A case study of ‘points of influence’ and mobile phone donations

2018

More than seven billion mobile phones are estimated to be in service globally, with more than a billion older phones likely to be retired. A major barrier to a sustainable circular economy for mobile phones is people’s hoarding of their retired phones. Old mobile phones may be refurbished for re-use or ultimately dismantled for possible extraction of elements, including ‘conflict’ metals such as coltan (containing elements tantalum and niobium), mined in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and threatening wild populations of eastern Grauer’s gorillas (Gorilla beringei graueri). Zoos Victoria cares for western gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) who served as ambassadors for their Grauer’s gorilla counterparts in this community-based social marketing initiative. Through tracking of barcodes on satchels of recycled mobile phones, efficiency of ten different points of influence could be calculated for the ‘They’re Calling on You’ mobile phone recycling community campaign at Zoos Victoria in Australia. Over a six-year period (2009–2014), a total of 115,369 mobile phones were donated. The Courier Collect initiative resulted in 50,883 mobile phone donations (44% of total), followed by the Static Display at Melbourne Zoo, resulting in 29,778 mobile phone donations (26% of total). The number of phones collected for Keeper Talks (at Melbourne Zoo and Werribee Open Range Zoo) was 12,684 (11% of total), and in terms of fostering close connections between visitors and the conservation campaign, keeper talks were effective as one phone was donated for every four people attending a keeper talk at Werribee Open Range Zoo and one phone was donated for every 28 people who attended a keeper talk at Melbourne Zoo. We provide suggestions for future campaigns, so that accurate data capture can allow cost-benefit analyses to be conducted. Our results demonstrate that a conservation-based organisation, in partnership with corporate sponsors and community groups can effectively influenced people’s mobile phone recycling behavior, paving the way for international collaborations to maximize scale and impact.

J of Industrial Ecology

“…The disposal route for that second or multiple lifetime must also consider the one most applicable to the location in which the phone is discarded (Tanskanen ), such as Nigeria (Osibanjo and Nnorom ), Korea (Jang and Kim ), Sri Lanka (Thavalingam and Karunasena ) or Finland (Ylä‐Mella et al. ).…”

Section: Tackling the Problemmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The disposal route for that second or multiple lifetime must also consider the one most applicable to the location in which the phone is discarded (Tanskanen 2013), such as Nigeria (Osibanjo and Nnorom 2008), Korea (Jang and Kim 2010), Sri Lanka (Thavalingam and Karunasena 2016) or Finland (Ylä-Mella et al 2015). For example, in China and India, mobile phones are regularly dismantled in order to access the components inside them (Rathore et al 2011;Wang et al 2013), to repair and remanufacture "new" phones.…”

Section: Multiple Outcomesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To recycle the mobile phones most effectively, it is essential that they are recovered. Recycling infrastructure in regions such as the European Union (EU) are more developed than those in developing countries (Osibanjo and Nnorom ; Thavalingam and Karunasena ), resulting in a wide range of recovery rates; for example, 15% in the UK and United States, or as low as 1% in Indonesia or Nigeria (Tanskanen ). At present, the material value of the phones is not enough to warrant collection as a unique resource for recycling; instead, to extract the best economic value from the phone as a product, it is preferable to refurbish or sell secondhand (Geyer and Blass ).…”

Section: Background To the Life Cycle Of A Mobile Phonementioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Integrating Environmental and Social Life Cycle Assessment: Asking the Right Question

Suckling

Lee

2017

Mobile phones offer many potential social benefits throughout their lifetime, but this life is often much shorter than design intent. Reuse of the phone in a developing country allows these social benefits to be fully realized. Unfortunately, under the current state of development of recycling infrastructure, recovery rates of phones after reuse are very low in those markets, which may lead to an environmental burden due to loss of materials to landfill. In order to recover those materials most effectively, recycling in developed countries may be the best option, but at a cost of the ability to reuse the phones. The issues facing integration of social and environmental concerns into a single life cycle assessment and resulting challenges of identifying the disposal option with the most sustainable outcome are explored using mobile phones as a case study. These include obtaining sufficient geographical and temporal detail of the end of life options, the collation and analysis of the large amounts of data generated and the weighting of the disparate environmental and social impact categories. The numerous challenges may mount up to make performing life cycle assessment of mobile phones unwieldy. Instead of trying to encompass every aspect in full, it is proposed that focus is given to answering a question which takes into account the resources available: it is important to ask the question which has the best chance of being answered