Abandoned cell phones pose problems

Korea must figure out what to do with 13 million used mobile handsets discarded each year because of users’ desires to have the latest gadgets and Korean cell phone manufacturers’ quick rollout of new technology. A year or two after buying a new model, many customers will find their once state-of-the-art handset has become outdated, as Korean cellular phone manufacturers are producing higher quality cell phones with upgraded features, such as playing MP3 files. Used cell phones are mounting at a five-story warehouse of SK Networks in Yongin, Gyeonggi province, that collects them for SK Telecom for destroying or recycling. Most phones have been used for one to two years; some are only a few months old. “We collect about 300,000 to 400,000 used handsets a month from SK Telecom shops around the nation, and that amounts to about 4 million units a year,” said Jeong Min-ho, an official of SK Networks. “As the number of used handsets rises, we have even hired part-time workers to handle them,” he said, SK Networks estimated that there will be a total of 13 million used handsets this year. Others estimated that the number will reach 15 million this year because of the number portability system, which began this year, and the development of the phones that allow to playback of MP3 files. Contrast these figures to those of the late 1990s, when only 3 to 4 million cell phones were discarded. Companies collected 6 million used cell phones last year, out of an estimated 13 million units abandoned by their users. The remaining 7 million phones are presumed to be lying unused in homes or tossed out with the garbage or traded among individuals. Many of the collected handsets are destroyed. SK Telecom, the nation’s largest mobile telecommunications company, said it destroyed more than 1 million units out of 4 million and exported or rented out the rest. Mobile handsets used for KTF and LG Telecom cannot be exported because they use a different frequency, and most of them are used for rentals or destroyed. The used phones contain lead and mercury, which can hurt the environment. The government recently decided to make cell phone manufacturers responsible for recycling used phones, starting from next year. But the government has not decided on how the companies should collect and recycle the phones. Manufacturers insist that the telecommunications companies should be responsible for the used phones because most of them were sold through the distribution channels of the service carriers. But the telecommunication companies say the responsibility of recycling lies with the manufacturers, just as it is with any other household appliance. The two parties had a meeting with the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Information and Communication to discuss the issue Tuesday but did not reach an agreement. Experts said that it is urgent to figure out ways to recycle unused phones, such as using them as remote controllers, using the handset batteries as toy batteries or extracting metals such as gold and silver from the phones for other purposes. “Many phones are dumped with other garbage, and it’s becoming a problem,” said Jeong Sang-ho, an environmental activist. “Companies should find a way to deal with the used phones, instead of trying to avoid their responsibility.” The consumption pattern needs to change as well, said an official at a mobile telecommunications company. “Customers like new phones too much, and that makes mountains of secondhand phones,” he said. “We pay dozens of thousand won per handset as a royalty to Qualcomm, and destroying a large number of handsets is a huge waste.” by Yum Tae-jung