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what to do with old phones

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-eight years and a million words

We've got about three old phones hanging around the apartment. Now I know how to get rid of them responsibly.

I didn't know what to do with the things because I didn't want to see them just go to the garbage dump. Mobile phones are made finite mineral resources that we're currently treating as disposable. This includes minerals that are harvested by digging up tonnes and tonnes of top soil in Africa. The process of making the memory chips and other components is also horrendously wasteful given that these electronics are typically discarded in a matter of three years.

Thanks to fellow gaijin Tokyosider Clement Nyirenda, I've learned that there is a program that takes donations of old phones for use by medical teams in developing nations. Apparently they use SMS to get information back and forth without using vehicles to cover the distances involved. Saving fuel and saving all of the resources that went into creating the phone. Woohoo!

I only hope they'll take my current phone. It's been dropped once or twice since Kenny decided to start playing with the thing.