Though signals are mixed about numbers and potential revenue, the popular devices hold too many toxins to be incinerated, officials say.
By BRIDGET HALL GRUMET
Published July 12, 2003
PORT RICHEY - It's impossible to say how many used cell phones - old, broken or obsolete - find their way into Pasco County's garbage incinerator every year.
But officials say any number above zero is too much.
"We really don't want to burn those cell phones," said Farouk El-Shamy, the county's environmental and hazardous waste manager. "They have lead, gallium arsenate, cadmium, mercury, batteries, and we need to get all of that out of the waste stream before the garbage gets incinerated."
That's why El-Shamy's office has proposed a countywide cell phone recycling program. The idea comes before the County Commission on Tuesday, as part of the consent agenda.
Here's how it would work:
People would drop off their old cell phones at the county's hazardous waste collection centers and other county facilities.
The county would send the cell phones to Quicksilver Recycling Services, the Tampa company that already recycles computers and other electronic devices for the county.
The working phones would be resold to companies that offer used cell phones. The broken ones would be taken apart, and the plastic and metals would be recycled, said Mike Flynn, one of Quicksilver's owners.
Any revenue would go to the recycling education programs at Pasco elementary schools. Because it would be a new program, however, no one knows how much money the county might get.
"It's an unknown, so it's difficult to say," Flynn said.
More than 128-million Americans use cell phones, and on average they are replaced every 18 months, according to INFORM Inc., an environmental research organization.
The nonprofit Wireless Foundation estimates 30-million cell phones sit idle in homes and businesses across the country.
In a pilot recycling program last September, Pasco County collected 341 old cell phones at seven public schools, El-Shamy said. "I was surprised myself" with the number, he said.
Then again, El-Shamy admitted he once had four extra cell phones at home.
"We sit on them, they're all working, but when you change from (cell phone) company to company, the phone is obsolete," he said. "Why can't we recycle that?"
- Bridget Hall Grumet covers Pasco County government. She can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6244, or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6244. Her e-mail address is hall@sptimes.com
