CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- SM City Pampanga and all other SM Malls in the country, together with cellular phone giant Nokia on Monday simultaneously launched its cell phone waste recovery project in a move to draw concern to the responsible collection and disposal of used phone batteries, chargers, casings and other toxic chemicals and heavy metals found in mobile phones.

According to SM City Pampanga Public Relations Officer Roselle Sarmiento, the project was started a few years ago with the Department of Trade and Industry, the National Waste Management Commission, Japan International Cooperation Agency and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

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She said that it was re-launched on Tuesday in support of SM Malls to Republic Act 6969, or the “Act to Control Toxic Substances and Hazardous Nuclear Wastes,” and to create more awareness to the hazards e-wastes pose on consumers as the market and demand for mobile and wireless gadgets like cellular phones continue to increase.

“For us at SM, we have been continuously steering our corporate social responsibility efforts towards our customers because we believe going green goes hand in hand with good business,” Sarmiento told Sun.Star.

Nokia Philippines representative Ron Canlas corroborated Sarmiento’s statements, saying Nokia has taken the lead and that big step in seeing to the proper disposal of its used cellular phone models.

Environmentalist Rox Peña, who keynoted the event, said that according to Earth 911, the total annual global volume of e-waste is estimated to reach about 40 million metric tons.

He said e-waste is growing at three times the rate of municipal wastes, and that it accounts for only one to our percent of these, but it is in fact, responsible for 70 percent of heavy metals in landfills, including 40 percent of all lead.

Peña said that statistics from Strategy Analytics, 1.1 billion cell phones were sold in 2007 which puts a cell phone in one of every six people’s pockets considering a world population of about 6.8 billion. He said that constantly changing cell phone technologies and incentives for upgrades result to a higher demand for cell phone reuse and recycling.

Peña also cited some facts about cell phones and recycling including the number of cell phones made obsolete, running to as much as 100 million; the rate of recycling pegged at only 10 percent; the average lifespan of a cell phone at only 18 months; and the dangers stockpiled cell phones pose to the user like lead coatings and explosive lithium-ion batteries.

“It is imperative these much be recycled, including its plastic components. And precious metals like silver and gold in their components could be recovered and put into good use,” he told Sun.Star.

Recycling bins could be found in entrances of SM Malls where obsolete and used cell phones could be discarded.