Press Release
The Ministry of Environment gets down to collect old cell phones
- Date:
- 2005-06-29
- View:
- 5,137
On June 15th 2005, there was a campaign in Seoul and the surrounding metropolitan districts to collect old cell phones from elementary/middle school students (to encourage both children and adults to participate in collecting and recycling activities.)
In order to build efficiency in collecting and recycling old cell phones, the Ministry of Environment promoted this operation to not only raise funds but to protect the environment from their hazardous components that cell phones have.
Cell phones’ printed circuit board (PCB) and batteries are composed of materials like gold, silver, palladium and cobalt that can be recycled and reused in cell phone manufacturing. However, cell phones contain hazardous materials like lead, cadmium, mercury and arsenic which harms the environment in Korea landfills and incinerators.
The Ministry of Environment added old cell phones to the list of collective goods under the ‘Extended Producer Responsibility’ (EPR) system. Yet, the lack of people’s interest and awareness in recycling cell phones are the obstacles for the Ministry of Environment to work on.
The amount of old cell phones has increased up to 13 million and only 4 million of those phones(30.8%) have been collected. However, there are approximately 9 million old phones still left in households in Korea.
On 15th of June 2004, the Ministry of Environment started to collect old cell phones from 555 different elementary schools, 362 middle schools in Seoul as the Ministry’s first phrase strategy of collecting and recycling old cell phones. For the second phrase strategy, from July the campaign will take place in the metropolitan district to gather more of those old cell phones so that the majority of cell phones in most cities are collected and recycled by the end of the year.
The entire amount of money raised this year from the recycling will be donated to local schools and the surrounding communities.
The Ministry of Environment will continue to raise awareness about the toxics in cell phones and the importance of collecting and recycling old cell phones to promote the ‘Extended Producer Responsibility’ system.
In order to build efficiency in collecting and recycling old cell phones, the Ministry of Environment promoted this operation to not only raise funds but to protect the environment from their hazardous components that cell phones have.
Cell phones’ printed circuit board (PCB) and batteries are composed of materials like gold, silver, palladium and cobalt that can be recycled and reused in cell phone manufacturing. However, cell phones contain hazardous materials like lead, cadmium, mercury and arsenic which harms the environment in Korea landfills and incinerators.
The Ministry of Environment added old cell phones to the list of collective goods under the ‘Extended Producer Responsibility’ (EPR) system. Yet, the lack of people’s interest and awareness in recycling cell phones are the obstacles for the Ministry of Environment to work on.
The amount of old cell phones has increased up to 13 million and only 4 million of those phones(30.8%) have been collected. However, there are approximately 9 million old phones still left in households in Korea.
On 15th of June 2004, the Ministry of Environment started to collect old cell phones from 555 different elementary schools, 362 middle schools in Seoul as the Ministry’s first phrase strategy of collecting and recycling old cell phones. For the second phrase strategy, from July the campaign will take place in the metropolitan district to gather more of those old cell phones so that the majority of cell phones in most cities are collected and recycled by the end of the year.
The entire amount of money raised this year from the recycling will be donated to local schools and the surrounding communities.
The Ministry of Environment will continue to raise awareness about the toxics in cell phones and the importance of collecting and recycling old cell phones to promote the ‘Extended Producer Responsibility’ system.
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