Old cellphones not safe ‘souvenirs’

Keeping outdated cellphones, laptop computers, beepers and other electronic gadgets as “old school” souvenirs could pose a hazard to your health.

“Batteries will deteriorate and emit  fumes that can harm our health,” said Teodoro Locson Jr., president of Cebu Common Treatment Facility Incorporated (CCTFI).

“You should give it to people accredited by government for disposing it properly to make our environment safer,” he said.

Recovery boxes, where people can drop off used cellphones are found in  barangays Hipodromo and Mabolo, Cebu City Hall and Cyberzone in SM City Cebu.

Old cellphones can  be traded in for P10 each during the “Trash for Cash” activity at SM every first Friday and Saturday of the month.

The collected cellphones will be brought to Kitakyushu in Japan for proper treatment.

But until now, no batch has been sent abroad due to low e-waste  collection.

“There  really is a need to educate  people,” said Locson  in a workshop on e-waste management yesterday.

Barangays officials, academe, business groups, junk shop owners and malls attended the workshop to share experiences on policies and management options for e-waste as mandated by Republic Act No. 6969 or the Toxic Substances and Hazardous and Nuclear Wastes Control Act of 1990.

The Cebu City government has a partnership with the City of Kitakyushu in Japan, Nippon Magnetic Dressing Co. Ltd., CCTFI or Cebu E-Resources Recovery, Inc. (CERRI), and SM Prime Holdings, Inc. on e-waste management.

The partnership, which started last May, includes demonstrations of the proper recovery and treatment of e-waste in the city.

Cellphones and computer boards contain metals like copper, aluminum, silver and gold which can be extracted but the process needs careful handling.

“Most junk shops harvest these precious metals but the other toxic waste from the electronic gadgets and cellphones are not disposed off properly and end up  being thrown in rivers or landfills that may seep through the soil and affect the  ground water,”

Local law

Cebu City Councilor Nida Cabrera said she is drafting an ordinance for electronic waste and cellular phones management in the city and imposing penalties for non-compliance.

“An important part of the ordinance is information dissemination to increase awareness of households and barangays on the harmful effects of e-waste. We are more than ten years behind other countries,” Cabrera said.

The ordinance also seeks to create  a Cebu City Hazardous Waste Management Board.