Electronic recycling encouraged by European Parliament
Thursday, February 10, 2011 - 10:54:56
The European Parliament is starting a new campaign to get more people across the continent in tune with the idea of recycling e-waste, such as old mobile phones and laptop computers.
Millions of tons of electronic items are sent to landfill each year, which is not only harmful to the environment, but extremely wasteful, as the essential minerals used in the components are actually running low, according to officials.
A report in German news outlet Deutsche Welle, has outlined the parliament's plans to see 85 per cent of all e-waste recycled and collected by local authorities across the continent. It is hoping to meet this target by the year 2016.
Up to 75 per cent of the materials from a reclaimed device are intended to be reused under the plans, with new regulations put in place to stop countries illegally exporting waste to balance the figures.
At the moment mobile phones, computers and many other devices are shipped abroad from the UK, so that they can be recycled in developing nations. This is set to continue, but guarantees of safety are being sought by the European Parliament, despite the fact that critics point out these will be difficult to police.
The authorities recognise that at the moment many members of the public will find it incredibly difficult to recycle some electronic products which are no longer of any use. Thankfully, this is not the case with mobile phones in the UK, as a growing number of companies will buy up old handsets at competitive prices and take the hassle of recycling out of the hands of consumers.
Recycling mobiles not only lessens the impact on the environment through not wasting valuable materials, but it also means that the minerals involved in the production of new gadgets do not have to be sourced from nations where their extraction can go towards funding conflicts, according to GreenFudge.
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