Recycling is about using items in a new way rather than throwing them away in the rubbish and adding to the waste mountain. When it comes to mobile phones there is a huge challenge given that around 100 million handsets are discarded each year.
Teachers and students at a United States school in Jackson have joined the Samsung “Mobile March to a Million” project – aiming to collect and recycle one million mobile phones this year. Collection points have been set up at two schools in Jackson and further collection boxes at other places in the area are being sought.
A French teacher and two science teachers are the driving forces behind the project. They have been involved in recycling initiatives at the school previously. The current project has been timed to coincide with Earth Day 2010 and to raise the profile of recycling among students.
Samsung has offerered an incentive to the group by entering it in a draw for a $1,000 grant for each 25 phones collected. The “green grant” goes towards making the classroom more eco-friendly. Both working and non-working phones can all be included in the collection and memory chips, screens, PCBs, batteries and casings can all be recycled. Non-functioning chargers are also accepted. Metal, plastics and mercury can all be recovered from these components and PCBs are forwarded onto the recyclables commodities market.
Samsung say that just 10% of handsets in the US are recycled annually.