Wake Up The Sleeping Mobile Phone!

(Table 1) Annual shipment and recycling quantity of end-of-life mobile phones (Source: Ministry of Environment)

(Table 2) End-of-life mobile phone recovery system of each country(Source: End-of-life mobile phone recovery system and program compara-tive analysis for each country and company, Yeong Hee Yeon et al., POSTECH)

Background of problem selection

Primary research goal and research method

Analysis of the first survey

Secondary research goal setting and data presentation

Analysis of the secondary survey• The majority of the respondents (even before reading the data) answered that they

knew about the toxic substances and the value of metals inside their old cell phones. (Survey 2, Survey 3)

• In the secondary survey conducted after showing Data 1 and Data 2, the people who were willing to recycle their old cell phones accounted for 79 percent. (Survey 4-1)

• Even those who were not willing to recycle their old phones (21 percent) said that they would recycle the old cellphone if the records on their mobile phone were deleted prop-erly, they got compensated for their old cell phones, and if they were provided a conve-nient recycling method(Survey 4-2). In Survey 5 conducted after showing Data 2, as a measure of collecting old cell phones, they answered that such methods as placing a re-cycling bin nearby and installing the recycling information on the home screen or security screen of mobile phones would be an effective way to increase the rate of recycling.

Conclusion and recommendations

An old cell phone contains a large amount of valuable metals and rare metals such as gold,

silver, rare earth resources and palladium; thus, it is of a high economic value.

In the status quo, many countries were carrying out various programs for recycling old cell phones. (Table 2) Various companies were also running programs such as drop-off points ( old cell phone depository facilities in easily accessible places), free phone shipping, free online recovery, etc. From this we learned that even with the numerous recovery programs available, old cell phone re-cycling rates reached only a meager 20%. (Table 1)

It may cause serious environmental pollution unless it is recycled because it also contains such toxins as lead, ar-

senic and cadmium.

• Even though they are aware of the rare metals and toxins inside their old cell phones, they do not recycle their old cell phones properly. After reminding them of the economi-cal and environmental value of the used cellphones, the intention rate increased from 15% to 79%. From this we can learn that constant reminders can help increase the recycling intentions. (Table 3)

• We suggest that in order to convert the willingness of recycling into actual implementation of recycling, we should increase the awareness level of people by providing relevant information continuously with ef-fective promotion methods. (No. 1 to 3 below) ① Providing specific information (contact infor-

mation for recycling centers, environmental pollution caused by landfill disposal or phone incineration and the value of metals inside mobile phones) or presenting information that can increase public awareness of recycling options on the home screens or security screen of cellphones.

② Actively promoting the deletion method of confidential information within the cell phone to those people who are not willing to recycle it out of fear for leaking personal information.

③ Making sure that people are able to discard their ole cell phones conveniently by placing recycling bins in easily accessible places.

- Using school education and TV documentary programs- Using SNSs or UCC videos - Placing recycling bins in easily accessible places- Providing built-in recycling information in the cell phone itself.

Preliminary research

Our parents replace their mobile phone every 1 or 2 years. Their former phones are neglected and left unused in their houses, instead of being properly recycled.We began this research because we wanted to find the main reason behind thisphenomenon.

<Data 2: Additional campaign methods to increase the recycling rate>

Secondary survey

Despite the aggressive government and private industry recovery programs, the former survey results show that the majority of people do not recycle their old cell phones. Because we were interested in whether the view on the recy-cling of old cell phones would change if the awareness about the value of old cell phones and the impact thereof on the environment was raised, we also examined the change of surveyee recycling intentions by conducting an addi-tional survey after giving information about the importance of recyclable met-als inside old cell phones (Data 1) and additional methods for increasing the recycling rate(Data 2).

<Data 1: Economic value and environmental pol-lution of old cell phones>

• 86 people out of the 124 respondents said that they currently had old cell phones.• Of those who were not holding on to any old cell phones, 53 percent of them an-

swered that they would neglect their old mobile phone or dispose of it as if it were regular waste(not recycling) after purchasing a new mobile phone (There-fore making them a potential old cell phone holder). Thus, 85 percent of the 124 respondents said that they were not willing to recycle their old mobile phones.

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Research goal: To examine the rate of continued possession regarding old cell phones, the reasons for not recycling them, and the disposal plans for old cell phones when purchasing a new cell phone.Research subject: 90 teens, 34 adultsResearch method: Survey

Primary survey