Changes to postal regulation post a threat to mobile recycling
Monday, March 18, 2013 - 12:01:38
At the moment if you want to sell your old mobile phone online to one of the many competitive recycling companies, it is relatively simple to actually send your unwanted gadget over, once you have found an agreeable deal.
Some companies will even send you a freepost envelope, which means that you do not even have to cover the cost of postage.
However, mobile recyclers are warning that new rules regarding the posting of lithium batteries could do damage to the UK's recycling industry, according to Materials Recycling World.
Almost every mobile phone will draw its power from a lithium battery, but new regulations being introduced will mean that people will no longer be legally allowed to send old handsets to recyclers in the standard freepost envelopes provided.
Safety concerns over the potential for spontaneous combustion of these batteries, mean that they are deemed too dangerous to post without more secure packaging being used.
This means that either mobile recycling companies will be left out of pocket, since they will need to provide customers with safer packaging under the new regulations, or customers will have to send their handset in only after they have removed the batteries.
Experts fear that as well as being an issue for consumers and recyclers, this could also hamper the efforts of charitable organisations, since a growing number of these groups are turning to mobile phone recycling in order to raise cash.
If recycled phones are worth less because of the additional expense of transporting them in the light of the new regulations, then charities will be hit hard.
It is thought that various mobile recycling companies are currently trying to work with the Royal Mail in order to find an appropriate solution to this issue.
Latest News
Wednesday, May 13, 2020 - 10:32:41
Every industry around the world has been impacted by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, and recycling has been especially affected as a result of force [...]
Read More
Wednesday, May 6, 2020 - 21:33:36
Apple has pulled back the curtains on the all-new iPhone SE, bringing with it a raft of eco-friendly design features which aim to improve the green cr [...]
Read More
Wednesday, April 29, 2020 - 21:32:00
Researchers from New Zealand have demonstrated a new recycling solution which could help companies to reclaim rare materials from smartphones, PCs and [...]
Read More