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"It's not much of a stretch to liken America's relationship with cells phones to a once sizzling romance that ends in goodbye. Fated love affairs typically begin with blind infatuation and fiery passion before reality sets in, cooling the embers enough to allow more guarded, sometimes less attractive aspects of the self to surface. Interest wanes until the love object is abandoned or replaced by an alluring new one. Americans relate to cell phones in much the same way. An old phone, with once novel features that drew fascination, is discarded with hardly a thought when an updated model makes it seem obsolete. That consumers replace cell phones about every two years makes this analogy seem less silly. A parallel can be drawn, too, between the innards of a cell phone and what is revealed when one person lets another peek inside: it's not all pretty. Some nasty materials lurk behind the bright shiny casing, making cell phone disposal a knotty environmental issue, analogous to ending, with minimal damages, a relationship gone sour. "

Waste & Recycling News, 6/10/09 edition. "LGE MobileComm USA, a unit of LG Electronics Inc., is teaming up with San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit to provide mobile phone recycling. LG began outfitting six BART stations in San Francisco with cell phone collection receptacles to encourage commuters to recycle their phones, chargers and accessories. The sites will accept any manufacturer's devices through July 6. Only 10% of the mobile phones sold in the United States are recycled, according to the company."

Today NextWorth, of Lawrence, Mass., which describes itself as a consumer electronics trade-in company, unveiled a program to receive old cell phones and other devices and pay out cash for them if they're still usable, or responsibly recycle them if they're not.

Greener Working article by Tom Guay, 6/8/09. "Is your company ready to help its customers cut their carbon footprint? Whether you want to or not right now, you may not have a choice once your competitors adopt green strategies, and it's this kind of competitive pressure that's driving cell phone maker Sony Ericsson to be green. This summer marks a big expansion of the company's GreenHeart initiative to make green telecommunications equipment that cuts energy usage by its customers and within its manufacturing facilities."

Cheshire, UK (PRWEB) September 18, 2009 -- A search has been launched today to find 10 talented TV hopefuls to star in a major television advertising campaign to promote mobile phone recycling.

Living in an age of disposability has led many durable goods manufacturers to explore ways of reducing the environmental footprint their products leave during their manufacturing process and throughout their lifecycle. The sheer volume of mobile phones produced annually and the propensity of users to chase mobile technology trends leads to an average replacement cycle of between 12 and 18 months, bringing special attention to the greening efforts of mobile device manufacturers. As consumer awareness and environmental legislation continue to evolve, handset vendors are developing their corporate responsibility initiatives to develop new business practices aimed at improving the compliance and environmental sustainability of their handsets. The European commission and industry-led initiatives have made great progress in developing a set of requirements and goals for developing sustainable business practices across the entire life cycle of handset production, distribution, use and disposal. This study identifies and explores key global handset initiatives and the handsets that are coming to market as a result of vendors' efforts to minimize their environmental impact. It also offers an analysis of US consumer interest, awareness and preferences of green handset vendor initiatives. Available for purchase from ABI Research at this URL.

Gazelle, the online consumer electronics "reCommerce" service, reported it has partnered with Costco to set up the wholesale club's electronics trade-in and recycle program. The Gazelle Electronics Trade-In and Recycle Program involves three simple steps: 1.Visit costco.gazelle.com to determine the value of the electronic device; 2.Ship the item(s) to Gazelle for free; and 3.Receive a Costco Cash Card for the value of the item(s). The program will accept consumer electronics in a growing number of nearly 20 categories including digital cameras, laptops, MP3 players, cell phones and more.

By redesigning packaging for its phone accessories, Sprint expects to save $2.1 million annually in packaging costs. This represents a 35 percent reduction in packaging costs, according to a press release, and a corresponding reduction in 647 tons of waste annually.

"Donate your old cell phone, PDA, digital camera, or iPod to be recycled and benefit the charity of your choice! RFC is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization helping other charities with wireless recycling efforts."

As Kyocera appears to be giving up on Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) technology, Casio is getting into the game. OLED technology promises to unleash a wave of improved energy efficiency in the displays market, making televisions, mobile phones and other gizmos brighter, thinner and more innovative in their utility. One benefit is that the displays can be flexible, meaning they can be put on curved walls or other surfaces that previously did not make sense for video displays.

This fall (Oct. 15th,) Americans will receive rebates for swapping clunky home appliances for newer, green models

Welcome to the Consumer Reports' Electronics Reuse & Recycling Center. Here you'll find solutions for dealing with your old Computer, Cell phone, TV and Other electronics, plus tips for buying new electronics that may last longer. You'll also find information about the growing problem of E-waste and what government and industry are doing to address it.

South Korea's Samsung Electronics has said it will invest $4.3B (£2.6B) as part of an initiative to develop new energy-efficient products and halve carbon emissions from its factories by 2013. The consumer electronics giant today unveiled its Eco-Management 2013 plan, under which it will spend $2.5B on improving the energy efficiency of its products -- including TVs, refrigerators and air conditioning systems -- with a goal of delivering the highest levels of efficiency in the consumer electronics industry. Under the plan, standby power consumption on many products will also be halved from 1W to just half a watt, while the company has said it will work to identify new recyclable and organic materials that could be used in the manufacture of consumer products such as laptops and mobile phones. Meanwhile, $1.8B will be invested in halving greenhouse gas emissions from Samsung manufacturing plants. Article by Yvonne Chan, Greener Computing, 7/20/09.

Collective concern from businesses, municipalities, environmentalists and manufacturers over the hazards of e-waste has led to a search for ways to reduce its environmental impact. With a greater need for programs that handle collection and disposal of used electronics products in a way that is safest for the environment, product stewardship is emerging as a viable and cost-efficient strategy for doing so, placing the responsibility for a product's proper disposal on the shoulders of the company that makes or sells the product, or even upon the purchaser. The concept can be applied to a range of products, from paints and prescription medication to batteries and computers. Written by Carl Smith, CEO of the Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation, 7/22/09.

The emerging category of "green" electronics has captured consumers' attention in the past year. They are beginning to understand the various environmental and health impacts of the plethora of devices they interact with on a daily basis, according to research from the Natural Marketing Institute. Consumers are most anxious that their devices are difficult to recycle, but their concern differs by device, with almost 60 percent of consumers concerned that televisions are difficult to recycle, and only slightly over 40 percent of consumers stating that phones are difficult to recycle, according to the 2008 LOHAS Consumer Trends Database.

How--and why--we should make sure our old cell phones, TVs and PCs get dismantled properly; Time magazine article by Bryan Walsh, 1/8/09. Includes a good series of photos of China's "e-waste village."

Scientific American, 7/17/09, article by Larry Greenemeier. Most people assume that their trash ends up in a landfill somewhere far away (if they think about this at all). But growing concern over the environmental impact of waste-discarded electronics, in particular-has prompted a team of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to take a high-tech approach to studying exactly what people are tossing out and where those items are ending up. The researchers, part of MIT's Senseable City Lab, have developed electronic tags that they're hoping as many as 3,000 volunteers in Seattle and New York City will affix to different items they throw away this summer as part of the Trash Track program. These tags will contact cell phone towers they pass as they flow through the trash stream to their final destinations, helping the researchers monitor the patterns and costs of urban disposal.

The WEEE Forum's set of remarks on the European Commission's Proposal for a recast of Directive 2002/96/EC on WEEE 24 April 2009. "In this paper, the WEEE Forum seeks to contribute, by providing both expert views and facts and figures, to the discussion on the recast of the Directive. The focus of this issue paper is the newly proposed collection targets and the requirement on member states to finance at least the costs of collection from collection facilities and the treatment, disposal and recovery of WEEE, and to encourage producers to take full ownership of the WEEE collection, in particular by financing the collection of WEEE throughout the whole waste chain including from private households."

Illinois e-waste legislation that requires manufacturers to establish facilities to accept e-waste from consumers. The law is on a rolling basis and over the next few years the recycling requirements will kick in and by 2012, disposal of certain e-waste in municipal waste and sanitary landfills and at incinerators will be prohibited. The E-Waste Act only applies to electronic equipment taken out of use from residences, but it affects many of the businesses involved in the stream of electronic commerce. There is a civil penalty of up to $10,000 for each day of violation. Devices covered in the legislation include computers, cell phones, televisions, PDAs, printers, fax machines, game consoles, VCRs, DVD players, iPods and others (calculators and typewriters are NOT included).