Smartphones ranked by toxic chemical content
Monday, October 8, 2012 - 15:47:56
Some people may know that one of the best reasons to recycle old mobile phones is that they contain toxic chemicals, which, if released into the environment, can cause a lot of damage.
This makes sending them to landfill rather than having them properly recycled a dangerous step, since it can have an impact for many years to come.
Now a new study from the Ecology Centre has set out to see which smartphones are the most dangerous, in order to encourage more people to take the recycling route when they upgrade to a new model.
A total of 36 phones were dissected and analysed as part of this study, with the first generation iPhone taking the top spot, with a toxicity rating of five out of five.
The original iPhone model is now five years old, which means that its relative lack of sophistication is perhaps unsurprising.
However, it should indicate that anyone with a very old iPhone lying around in a drawer at home, should recycle it rather than simply chucking it in the bin to make room.
In the ranking table, the EC analysts managed to identify five handsets which were at relatively low risk when it comes to toxicity.
This included the Motorola Citrus, which won plaudits for being the least harmful device tested.
Modern models, including the iPhone 5 and the Samsung Galaxy S3, were found to be relatively damaging, although not as disastrously so as the original iPhone, which means that some progress has been made.
Throwing away any old electrical product is a bad idea if you have the ability to recycle it, because doing so is not only wasteful, but also creates a potential hazard.
With all the mobile phone recycling facilities available to you, it makes sense to properly dispose of old phones, particularly since you can still sell them to make money back during the process.
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