Appalled!

[lapsedmodernist]

I forgot to mention this the other day--on Saturday before I went to meet 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."

Comments

[dcart.livejournal.com]

Wow. That is just unbelievable.

[doraphilia.livejournal.com]

oh my god. that is ridiculous.

[amberskyfire.livejournal.com]

Wow! That is ridiculous. I'm just speechless.

They do have things you can do with old cell phones, though. You can donate them to a nonprofit that programs them with one number and gives them to battered women so that if they need to call for help, they can.

We donated ours to an organization that fixes them and then gives them to soldiers in Iraq so that they can call family and friends for free.

[doraphilia.livejournal.com]

wow that is so awesome! do you have any links?

[amberskyfire.livejournal.com]

We donated ours to Cell Phones for Soldiers. If you ask them to send you an envelope, they will pay for the shipping and everything. You just drop the phone in (don't forget the chargers) and put it in the mail. It's free.

http://www.cellphonesforsoldiers.com/

As for other donations of cell phones, it would depend on your country, of course, but you can do a search online for "donate cell phone" and find all kinds of stuff.

[smschrader.livejournal.com]

Women's shelters in our area do this too. As long as a cell phone can be turned on it can dial 911.

[anthrokeight.livejournal.com]

Aiiee! Not. Good.

[poxyd.livejournal.com]

*headdesk*

[goddessspiral.livejournal.com]

wow. i'm just flabbergasted. is he thinking all 3rd world folks (first off I hate that way of referring to other countries) are materialistic whores?

just eww.

[the-macnab.livejournal.com]

"[E]ven if it doesn't work, they will just be happy to have something in their hand."

Yeah--to beat him with.

let's all play Al Jaffee "snappy answers"

[trochee.livejournal.com]

"... something in their hand."

... ideally, pitchforks and torches.

[boobirdsfly.livejournal.com]

oh dear.

[pyoor_excuse]

I remember there being some sort of recycling of mobiles to give to third world communities, I think that there was some reconditioning involved, but since mine have either ended up lost in the piles of crap I own or given to friends (or broken beyond repair) then it's never really been something I investigated...

His attitude though is a bit concerning...

[twotoedsloth.livejournal.com]

Congogirl is mi tocaya???

I feel irrationally proud.

[apropos.livejournal.com]

interesting anthrofactoid: everyone i met in png would classify chinese made electronic waste as waste, but broken cel phones of american or european provenance would definitely not be considered garbage.

as the saga of my broken celphone shows, even broken electronics sometimes have an enormous amount of surplus value, and the capacity to generate new forms of value too.

should i write up the witch/celphone/trickster/bus story as an article about the social production of value?

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

so, perhaps, that store clerk was like the proverbial broken clock...or perhaps like the clock that shows the right time for the wrong reasons?

should i write up the witch/celphone/trickster/bus story as an article about the social production of value?

um YES. and then you could publish is in American Ethnologist and have your pick of the job market when Your Time On It arrives.