Electronics Recycling Summit: Connecting with Wireless Recycling

A number of speakers at the Electronics Recycling Summit session of the recycling of wireless devices said that the industry represents a self-sustaining economic model that should ensure its continued success. 

According to various estimates, there are anywhere from 80 million to 500 million retired wireless handsets in the United States, according to Marc Leff of GRC Wireless Recycling, Miramar, Fla. According to industry data, users change handsets every 14 to 18 months on average, with replacement devices accounting for 80 percent of total sales, Neff said. The number of multiple technologies, such as GSM and CMA, create additional waste, as wireless users move to networks that do not support the technology used by their current phones, he added.

Neff said that the yield from cell phones exceeds the processing cost for the devices, creating a self-sustaining economic model. On average, two-thirds of the phones collected are sold into reuse markets, while a third are recycled.

“Cell phone recycling is a volume game,” he said, adding that it is an inventory-management intensive business.

Neff also discussed the relationship between cell phone recycling and fundraising. Currently 2,000 organizations are engaged in fundraising through cell phone recycling using GRC.

Craig Boswell of Hobi International, Dallas, also pointed out the self-sustaining nature of cell phone recycling as well as a few other factors that make wireless recycling different from computer recycling. He said that the reuse market is a key component, with the value of phones ranging from a few dollars to more than $100, depending on the model. He said the industry is currently unable to meet the demand from the secondary market. Most of these phones are sold to pay-as-you-go services, such as Virgin Mobile.

Collecting the material is easier because it can be done in bulk and is relatively inexpensive. He pointed out that there are several options ranging for the U.S. Postal Service to package shippers, adding that phones can be shipped for as little at 30 to 50 cents each.

However, he said, there are “more upfront costs in managing incoming material.” Boswell also said that there are more inventory points for wireless devices vs. personal computers.

Jennifer Chambers of Dexter, Mich.-based Recellular, said that 50 percent of the phones that enter the reuse market are used domestically as replacement phones or for pre-pay programs, while the remainder go to international markets, with Latin America and the Far East being the largest markets at 15 percent and 20 percent respectively. 

Bob Tonetti of the EPA Office of Solid Waste addressed regulatory issues for the recycling of wireless devices.

Tonetti said that household wastes, scrap metal, whole circuit boards and precious metals qualify as non-hazardous waste, while equipment for reuse, processed scrap metal and shredded circuit boards are non considered waste by the EPA, but he reminded attendees that state rules for classifying hazardous waste may be more stringent.

The Basel Convention has established a pilot partnership on mobile phones known as MPPI with the objective of development best practices guidelines, Tonetti said. The MPPI Mobile Phone Working Group is looking at the design of the devices as well as at collection and transboundary movement, refurbishment and recycling. The group has addressed the design, collection, refurbishment and recycling guidelines, but has yet to complete the transboundary movement guidelines because of its controversial nature, Tonetti said. However, the group has agreed that mobile phones exported for recycling are likely considered hazardous waste under the Basel Convention and that those that are working and ready for reuse when exported are not covered under the convention. The grey areas that remain to be resolved are exports for repair and return and those for refurbishment and remarketing. The group will consider an interim approach for these areas that it will test for one year, Tonetti said. The MPPI with the interim approach on these export issues is scheduled for completion in 2008.

The Electronics Recycling Summit was May 8-11 at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport in Burlingame, Calif. The show is sponsored by the International Association of Electronics Recyclers (IAER) and the IEEE Computer Society Technical Committee on Electronics and the Environment.