Legislation establishing the nation's first cell phone recycling requirement passed the California State Assembly Wednesday night on a 41-32 vote. The bill now advances to the State Senate.
The bill by Assembly Member Fran Pavley, a Democrat from the Los Angeles suburb of Agoura Hills, would require any entity selling cell phones to take back and recycle old phones at no cost to the consumer.
"Almost 40,000 cell phones are thrown away every day in California - either into a drawer somewhere or worse, into the trash," said Pavley, who explained that her bill passed despite opposition from the cell phone industry.
Free cell phones, given away to stimulate signups for phone services, number into the millions, and because they are free, many consumers just toss the phones away without thinking about the toxics inside.
"Their circuit boards contain myriad toxins such as arsenic, beryllium and lead, many of which are persistent bioaccumulative toxins (PBTs), and have the potential to be released into the air and groundwater when burned in incinerators or disposed of in landfills," she said. "That's a serious threat to human health and our environment and we need to provide a real alternative."
The bill requires retailers of cell phones to provide consumers with a cost free, convenient system for the reuse and/or recycling of cell phones and ensure that they do not end up in the waste stream. The bill also requires public education to promote the recycling of used cell phones.
Mark Murray, executive director of Californians Against Waste, a nonprofit environmental advocacy organization and sponsor of the bill, said that the growth of the cell phone market "has raised a red flag for environmentalists."
In the United States, cell phone use has surged from 340,000 subscribers in 1985 to over 150 million last year, said Murray. "The average life of a cell phone is about 18 months, meaning that 100 million cell phones will become obsolete every year by 2005."
"By the end of next year, about 500 million discarded cell phones will be stockpiled in U.S. homes, disposed of in landfills or end up as toxic waste in developing nations such as India," he warned.
"The truth is that up to 75 percent of those phones are stockpiled because people don't have any information about what to do with them, and probably don't know how much hazardous material their phones contain," said Assemblywoman Christine Kehoe, a San Diego Democrat, a joint author with Pavley of the bill.
"I think it is appropriate that retailers who are reaping the benefits from the rapid turnover of their products don't place the burden of dealing with the millions of discards on taxpayers," said Kehoe.
"Many service providers have voluntarily implemented recycling programs by collaborating with third party recyclers," Kehoe said. "Unfortunately, these programs collect less than five percent of the obsolete phones. Our bill will enhance these existing programs." "Our goal," said Pavley, "is nothing less than recycling or reuse of 100 percent of discarded cell phones."
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