The first disposable cellular telephones won't hit the market until fall, but environmentalists are already concerned about the toxic trash that millions of chat-and-chuck phones could generate.
Going for as little as $30, these pocket-sized phones will be sold over the counters of convenience stores, gas stations and drug stores without credit checks or contract agreements. The basic phones have no display and no dial pad, and can only make outgoing calls using voice recognition. When the minutes are up, the phones can be tossed or, sometimes, returned for recycling.
Heavy metals and other toxins could be released into the air or water if the phones are disposed of in landfills or their plastic and metal components are melted in recycling plants, environmentalists warn.
The $29.95 Hop-On, the first of the disposables, will go on sale in 27,000 outlets in October, said Peter Michaels, CEO of Hop-On.com Inc.
Hop-On offers consumers the choice of trashing or recycling the pocket-sized phones. Those who bring the unit to the retailer where it was purchased will get $5, either off their next phone purchase or in a store coupon.
Phones that make their way back to Hop-On will be tested, have their lithium-ion batteries recharged and their minutes replenished before being sold again. The objective is to use the phones at least five times.
"If people don't want to turn them back in, it's their prerogative, but our goal is to get the phones back," Michaels said.
The plans of two other companies aren't as clear.
The Phone-Card-Phone is billed on Dieceland Technologies' Web site as the "World's First Disposable Cell Phone." Neither Dieceland nor General Electric, which is distributing the phone, returned calls seeking details.
San Francisco-based Tele- spree's handset can be replenished with power and time by replacing a disposable alkaline battery pack, called an AirClip.
"We have been in discussion with dealers about the AirClips and potentially getting them back," said Telespree spokeswoman Lissa Franklin.
One way to accomplish that might be to print store coupons on the battery pack, Franklin said.
Environmentalists praise Hop-On's plans, but worry that Americans' throw-away mentality may trump any sense of thrift or responsibility. So far, the main marketing appeal of the phones has been their trashability. Hop-On, despite its ambitious recycling program, calls its phone "the pinnacle of the Disposable Age."
And even disposable phones that are reusable will wear out.
Bette Fishbein, senior fellow for the New York-based environmental research group INFORM Inc., is studying the environmental impact of disposing of the more than 100 million standard cell phones that exist today.
"You're not talking about a huge amount of waste for each one, but cumulatively, they are a huge problem," Fishbein said. "When you start talking about disposable cell phones, that adds another dimension entirely."
For example, some flame retardants commonly used in the printed circuit boards and plastic cases of cell phones have been associated with cancer, liver damage and neurological, immune, thyroid and endocrine dysfunctions, she said.
Among the hazardous materials, she listed:
Gallium arsenide, made with the poison arsenic, is often found in the microprocessors that make up the brains of the phones.
Beryllium, a metal-like element that can cause pulmonary disease and cancer if its powder form is breathed. It is used in copper alloys, and "there's a tremendous amount of copper in cell phones," Fischbein said.
Lead solder, found in a phone's printed wiring board. Lead, in sufficient concentrations, results in sterility, birth defects, mental retardation and kidney and brain damage.
Cadmium, a heavy metal found in batteries. It has been associated with lung and prostate cancer, kidney damage, emphysema and bone diseases.
Throw-away electronics generate toxic waste long before they're disposed of, warns the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, an environmental watchdog in San Jose, Calif. Solvents, acids and toxic gases are among the byproducts of manufacturing the millions of microprocessors that will form the cell phones' brains.
"The more chips made, the more of those chemicals are used and those wind up in our air and water," said Olga Meydbray, research associate with the organization.
Hop-On alone plans to manufacture 30 million phones in the next year, Michaels said. There were nearly 110 million cell phone subscribers in the United States at the end of 2000, according to the Federal Communications Commission.
Cell phones aren't the only problem. As new computers, stereos and other electronics are manufactured in increasingly shorter cycles, companies are under pressure to take back and reuse or recycle components.
Many cities now prohibit dumping computers and other electronic gear in landfills to prevent toxins from leaching into the water supply.
And the European Union has enacted strict new standards requiring electronics manufacturers to retrieve, reuse and recycle a minimum percentage of components.
By 2006, makers of computers, telecommunications equipment and peripherals will be required to recover 75 percent by weight of the products they ship. Some 65 percent of products shipped, also by weight, must be recycled or reused. By 2008, lead, mercury, cadmium, chromium and some flame retardants must be eliminated from all electronics.
If talk-and-trash phone makers don't come up with ways to do the same, they will face regulation in the United States, predicted Allen Hershkowitz, senior scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group headquartered in New York.
"Maybe we should [legislate] a deposit on these things," Hershkowitz said.
Margie Wylie wrote this article for Newhouse News Service.
Copyright © 2001 by The Baltimore Sun
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