Originally published June 26 2005
Old cell phones to be recycled
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
The Korean Times recently described a new practice in which the Ministry of Environment intends to design a cell-phone recycling campaign geared toward elementary and middle school students.
The Ministry of Environment said on Tuesday that the campaign is designed to encourage elementary and middle school students to recycle old and unused mobile phones.
The campaign is directed at students from 917 schools in Seoul _ 555 elementary schools and 362 middle schools.
The ministry is considering expanding the campaign throughout the country if it produces good results.
It is part of the ministry's efforts to implement the system of ``Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)'' for cell phones.
``The ministry adopted the EPR system for cell phones in January to attract public attention to the issue of collecting and recycling old cell phones,'' said Im Hyung-sun, an official at the ministry's resource recycling division.
It added cell phone makers to the list of manufacturers from this year as telephone handsets can be very detrimental to the environment if they are not disposed of correctly.
Cell phones contain a large number of hazardous substances that can pollute the air when burned in incinerators and penetrate the soil and drinking water when buried in landfills.
The ministry also plans to apply the cell phone-collection campaign to apartment complexes.
The ministry said it will launch the campaign in five large apartment complexes in Seoul for three months starting July.
If it is successful, the ministry said it will gradually expand the campaign to include all apartment complexes in Seoul in October and those in other cities next year.
Other efforts to get the EPR system on track include strengthening promotional activities by making cell phone producers and mobile carriers post recycling promotion lines in advertisements, the ministry said.
The ministry also said it will build an effective collection and recycling system for handsets.
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