Remediating Cell Phones

"If predictions hold true, millions of cellphones will be put out to pasture...under a new rule allowing people to keep their phone numbers when switching cellular carriers....Although many of those phones will find a dusty home in a cluttered desk drawer, millions could wind up in landfills, leaking toxic metals and chemicals into the ground....Although the industry has just launched a new initiative to publicize recycling, existing efforts by individual wireless companies with collection boxes in their stores have so far mustered only modest success. And even those phones that are refurbished raise environmental concerns because they still may eventually end up in the garbage, especially if sold in poorer nations with no recycling programs - as the majority of refurbished phones are."