October 3, 2004
California Adopts Cell Phone Recycling Law
California has adopted the Cell Phone Recycling Act of 2004, which will require retailers to have a system in place to collect used cell phones if they want to sell new ones, reports WirelessWeek (via The Feature.)
It also bans the sale, on and after July 1, 2006, of a cell phone to a consumer unless the retailer complies with the act.
The bill was first announced in February by Fran Pavley and Christine Kehoe. At the time, Pavley said, "Almost 45,000 cell phones are thrown away every day in California -- either into a drawer somewhere or worse, into the trash. Their circuit boards contain myriad toxins such as arsenic, lead and mercury, many of which are Persistent Bioaccumulative Toxin (PBTs), and have the potential to be released into the air and groundwater when burned in incinerators or disposed of in landfills." The impetus behind the bill was to impede a "serious threat to human health and our environment," she added.
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