130 MILLION CELL PHONES WILL BE DISCARDED ANNUALLY IN THE US BY 2005 STUDY RECOMMENDS WAYS TO REDUCE THE ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH IMPACTS OF CELL PHONE WASTE New York, NY – May 8, 2002 – Cell phone use has grown dramatically in the United States, from 340,000 subscribers in 1985 to over 128 million in
Case Reopened: Reassessing Refillable Bottles (Executive Summary) Discarding beer and soft drink containers after just one use is a relatively new concept. Before World War II, nearly all packaged beer and soft drinks were sold in refillable glass bottles meant to be used as many as 50 times. Today, only about 6 percent of packaged
Calling All Cell Phones: Collection, Reuse, and Recycling Programs in the US November 2003 Eric Most (48 pp.,) The follow-up to INFORM’s 2002 study Waste in the Wireless World: The Challenge of Cell Phones, this report addresses four key programs now under way in the US to collect, refurbish, and recycle used cell phones. It
In 1994, United States residents generated over 209 million tons of municipal solid waste. If current trends continue, by 2010, we will have an additional 70 million tons to manage each year. Approximately one-third of our waste is generated by businesses, such as offices, restaurants, and retail stores. The amount of office waste can be
The Federal Republic of Germany has initiated the world’s most ambitious national solid waste policy, one that already has had international repercussions. The Ordinance on the Avoidance of Packaging Waste (Verpackungsverordnung), passed in 1991, makes industry responsible for its packages to the end of their life cycles, including the costs of collecting, sorting, and recycling
Downloading: Preventing Computer Waste Personal computers are a growing waste management problem. In 1998 alone, more than 20 million PCs became obsolete in the US, and fewer than 11 percent of them were recycled.(1) The rest — almost 18 million computers — were landfilled, incinerated, or stored away in closets or warehouses. By 2007, the
Community Waste Prevention Toolkit: Toner Cartridge Fact Sheet Re-Charge! Preventing Toner Cartridge Waste Each year, millions of empty toner and inkjet cartridges used in laser printers, fax machines, and copiers are thrown in the trash, destined for landfills and incinerators. Buying locally remanufactured toner and inkjet cartridges — and recycling empty cartridges — is an
Community Waste Prevention Toolkit: Battery Fact Sheet Reduce, Recharge, Recycle! Preventing Waste from Batteries Batteries are an integral part of modern life, affecting the way we work, play, communicate, and travel. They are used to power devices large and small, from watches, pagers, and cell phones to clocks and household appliances to computers, power tools,
June 2000 Bette Fishbein (INFORM), John Ehrenfeld (MIT), and John Young (Materials Efficiency Project) (2000, 290 pp., $30), ISBN 0-918780-73-X This book addresses materials use and its environmental impacts worldwide; EPR policies and programs in the United States; e-commerce and its potential environmental impacts and implications for EPR; and the corporation’s role in implementing EPR
