![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Sep. 27th, 2009
I forgot to mention this the other day--on Saturday before I went to meet ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
congogirl in Liege, I popped into the cell phone store to buy credits for my empty SIM card. I ended up finally figuring out that cell phones without contract can be bought very cheaply here, and paid 20 EU for a brand new cell phone that I will keep using with prepaid cards, as my old phone was on the verge of expiring and "searched" for network for a very long time any time if was turned on.
Anyway, so I asked the store clerk whether they had some sort of environmentally safe recycling protocol for old disused cell phones, as obviously I didn't want to just throw it into the garbage/have it dumped in a landfill. He said: "well, you could send it to the Third World [sic]." I said "um, no, actually waste transfer from 'recycled' electronics is a huge environmental problem in developing nations." He--who had just gotten done describing to me everything that was legitimately wrong with my 4-year old phone--said: "no, you see, they don't have anything there, so even if it doesn't work, they will just be happy to have something in their hand."
congogirl in Liege, I popped into the cell phone store to buy credits for my empty SIM card. I ended up finally figuring out that cell phones without contract can be bought very cheaply here, and paid 20 EU for a brand new cell phone that I will keep using with prepaid cards, as my old phone was on the verge of expiring and "searched" for network for a very long time any time if was turned on.Anyway, so I asked the store clerk whether they had some sort of environmentally safe recycling protocol for old disused cell phones, as obviously I didn't want to just throw it into the garbage/have it dumped in a landfill. He said: "well, you could send it to the Third World [sic]." I said "um, no, actually waste transfer from 'recycled' electronics is a huge environmental problem in developing nations." He--who had just gotten done describing to me everything that was legitimately wrong with my 4-year old phone--said: "no, you see, they don't have anything there, so even if it doesn't work, they will just be happy to have something in their hand."
