Retiring a Cellphone? Recycle it, and fight poverty in Latin America

from the Dallas Morning News

Recycle cellphone, fight poverty in Latin America

At its best, a "think globally, act locally" effort ties together what happens across the globe with what happens across the street. That's the aim of a local recycling project designed to use discarded cellphones in Dallas to help women lift themselves from poverty in Latin America.

The Chiapas Project is focusing its Earth Day campaign this year on the millions of tons of electronic waste, a rapidly growing environmental threat around the world. Old computers, printers and cellphones, with their lithium batteries, end their lives as potential time bombs in landfills. A single cellphone, for instance, contains eight toxic metals – including lead, mercury and arsenic – all of which are capable of polluting land and water.

Some cities and states have pushed policies requiring makers of electronics and computers to participate in take-back recycling programs; several countries have enacted laws to prevent themselves from becoming e-waste dumps.

The Chiapas Project, a nonprofit Dallas organization, is asking corporations, universities and high schools to pledge to collect used cellphones and printer ink cartridges. The items will be refurbished and sold overseas to help fund micro-loan programs in Latin America. The drive, in conjunction with the Grameen Foundation, kicks off Jan. 22 and will run though Earth Day, April 22.

The loans, which are usually less than $100, go to women to establish or expand small businesses. In parts of the world where families live on just a few dollars a day, these loans are highly effective tools to pull people out of poverty. Not to mention that the seed money results from an effort to protect the planet.

What a deal – an act of environmental common sense that also strikes a blow against poverty.HOW THE PROGRAM WORKS

Dangerous e-waste ...

• One cellphone in a landfill can pollute up to 132,000 liters of drinking water.

• Cellphones contain at least eight toxic substances, including arsenic, lead and mercury.

• In the U.S., more than 500 million cellphones have been retired.

• An additional 10 million additional cellphones are dumped each month.

... can be recycled for good

• Typical Latin American families earn less than $2 a day.

• With as little as $50, a family can start a new business and a new life.

• The micro-financing repayment rate is about 98 percent.

For more information on how to participate in the Chiapas Project's "recycle to eradicate poverty" program, visit

http://chiapas-project.org.

SOURCE: The Chiapas Project