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Warning: Used Cell Phones |
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By Daniela Estrada*
Mobile
phone use is expanding throughout Latin America, but regulations
and technology are insufficient to deal with the obsolete units,
which can contain metals and other materials that are harmful to
the environment and health.
SANTIAGO - Although mobile telephony has seen
exponential growth in Latin America, the region lacks integrated
policies for handling used and obsolete telephones, which are manufactured
with materials that are toxic to the environment and human health.
According to a study published Aug. 21 by the LatinPanel consulting
firm, 70 percent of the Latin American population uses cellular
phones. Among the countries where the penetration of this technology
is greatest are Colombia (90 percent), Venezuela (89 percent), Chile
(87 percent) and Bolivia (82 percent).
The region does not have the enormous dumps for electronic waste
from industrialized countries -- as exist in nations like China
and Pakistan -- but the explosive increase in the number of cell
phones is beginning to worry some authorities.
There are increasingly more people who throw out their mobile phones
while they are still operational, motivated primarily by the technological
advances in new telephone models. "Old" phones are often passed
on to family members or friends, or shut away in a drawer at home.
However, in many cases, the used phones end up in garbage dumps,
due to lack of rules and information about proper disposal.
Efforts for re-use and recycling of cellular telephones remain few
and far between, and those that exist are promoted in large part
by organizations benefiting from them, which then pass on the products
to specialized companies. Only a few of the mobile phone service
providers operate programs for turning in the units.
Colombia is the only country in the region that is working on major
campaigns on safe phone disposal. In early August, the Alvaro Uribe
government and mobile telephone companies signed an agreement to
collect used phones and send those that cannot be dealt with locally
to Europe, where systems are in place with better technology for
recycling and for disposal of related toxic waste.
In Mexico, 40 of every 100 residents use cellular phones, equivalent
to 40 million people. The first diagnostic of the country's electronic
waste will be ready only in early 2007, and will serve as the basis
from which a treatment plan is hoped to be developed, Mario Yarto,
coordinator of the study at Mexico's National Institute of Ecology,
told Tierramérica.
For now, there is only a general law on waste management, dating
to 2003, which includes a special procedures for disposing of technological
waste. But the law has not yet been enacted, leaving cell phones
to continue their route to regular garbage landfills.
In Brazil there are 93 million cell phones: one for every two inhabitants.
In force is a resolution by the national council on environment,
CONAMA, which requires the manufacturers to collect and provide
appropriate disposal of the batteries that have higher than permitted
levels for human health of metals including cadmium, lead, nickel
and mercury oxide.
However, Marcelo Furtado, of the environmental watchdog Greenpeace-Brazil's
toxic waste campaign, said in a Tierramérica interview that the
rule is not heeded, and the volume of batteries produced far exceeds
the volume of batteries collected.
The expert said that consumers don't always know what they can throw
away and what to return to the manufacturer, nor are they sure where
to dispose of the phone or batteries. That is why, says Furtado,
the components of the telephones should be visible marked and more
collection sites set up.
Currently, the Brazilian government is drafting a national policy
for solid waste, which will be presented to Congress for debate
and should regulate the different types of electronic waste, including
mobile phones.
In Chile, where there are 11 million phones in circulation (population
16 million), there are no laws requiring companies to recycle their
electronic waste, although a spokesperson from the government's
National Environment Commission commented to Tierramérica that regulations
in this area are on the agenda.
Last year a regulation entered into force for managing hazardous
waste, which is a step forward but does not resolve the overall
problem. Today, recycling of electronic products depends mainly
on individual initiative.
Nevertheless, at the beginning of the year the municipality of Vitacura,
one of the wealthiest areas of the Chilean capital, launched a pioneering
plan for recycling electronic apparatuses.
Recycla is the only Chilean company dedicated to the final disposal
of such equipment, passing on cell phone batteries to Hidronor,
a local company that handles hazardous waste. The components that
cannot be re-used or recycled domestically are exported to Europe
for handling by specialized firms.
Mauricio Núñez, of Recycla, told Tierramérica he believes there
should be legislation, as there is in Europe and the United States,
"in which the companies that sell an item must be responsible for
taking back or recycling the units that become obsolete."
There are several clandestine dumps in Chile, says Núñez, with companies
assuring that they recycle electronics, "which isn't true."
"I know about a site in Hijuelas (in Chile's Fifth Region) where
an individual has more than 10,000 cell phone batteries and does
not want to take responsibility for their final disposal."
* Daniela Estrada is an IPS correspondent.
With reporting by Mario Osava in Brazil, and Diego Cevallos in Mexico. |
