Everyone loves the thrill of a new phone, but what happens to the old one?
While you might think responsibly recycling it at home takes care of the problem, the reality is far more complex – and alarming. Your seemingly harmless old device could be contributing to a growing environmental crisis in places like Thailand, polluting land, water, and air, and endangering the lives of unsuspecting communities.
The issue is part of a global problem of electronic waste, or e-waste, where developed nations like the US and those in the EU, despite having their own recycling laws, often fuel a black market that exploits countries in Southeast Asia.
The hidden journey of your hand-me-down device
When you discard your old phone, it might embark on an unexpected and dangerous journey.
After China banned e-waste imports in 2018, the flow of discarded electronics was moved to Southeast Asian nations, with Thailand becoming a major hub. The country introduced its own import ban in 2020, but the problem has only intensified.
The volume of e-waste entering Thailand has surged twentyfold in the past decade, reaching an astonishing 60,000 tonnes annually.
The average phone user in the West is likely to change their phone at least once every couple of years, which means hundreds of millions, if not billions, of discarded handsets.
How does it get there? Well, often, it’s mislabeled as “second-hand electronic goods for re-sale” to circumvent regulations. But once these “goods” arrive, they’re not resold; they’re smashed, recycled, and smelted in unlicensed facilities, many of them Chinese-owned and operating in rural areas to avoid detection.
The effect on local communities is not just hazardous, but borderline catastrophic, and a huge headache for residents living there.
Will the issue get worse?
The smelting process is incredibly lucrative, extracting valuable metals like copper, gold, and other minerals worth millions. However, it’s also a dirty and dangerous business. It releases mercury, lead, and toxic fumes directly into the environment.
Imagine the air you breathe, the water you drink, and the soil that grows your food being contaminated by these hazardous substances.
For the people of Thailand, the impact is already devastating. Farmers are seeing their crops blighted by polluted water running from nearby smelters. The noxious smell keeps residents awake at night. These unlicenced “international garbage processing facilities,” as Thailand’s industry minister Akanat Promphan calls them, offer no economic value to the country; they only destroy the environment and endanger livelihoods.
What’s being done, and what more can be done?
Thai authorities are fighting back. Task forces are conducting raids on illegal plants, and the government is pushing for new legislation to hold manufacturers more accountable for the entire lifecycle of their products.
This “producer responsibility” approach aims to force tech giants like Apple and Samsung to take back and responsibly dispose of their gadgets, although it’s optimistic to think that they’ll introduce a wide-scale change to their policies any time soon.
But this isn’t just Thailand’s problem. It’s a global one. Less than a quarter of that 60,000 tonnes is collected and recycled responsibly. The rate of e-waste generation is far outpacing our ability to deal with it safely.
A call for greater responsibility
The problem gets worse when you consider just how much we rely on our mobile devices. The shift toward online usage has now been condensed into handheld form, be it trying out a new game like a mobile title or roulette demo, or ordering a pair of new sneakers. A new model has to comply with all our needs.
But before you consider upgrading your phone, think about its entire journey, not just its life in your hand. The metals that go into it are difficult to extract, and they also do not bio-degrade easily, if at all.
Individual responsible recycling efforts are a start, but the core issue lies in the systemic failures that allow this toxic trade to flourish.
The questions for world leaders should be as follows: What do you think is the most impactful way to tackle this global e-waste crisis: stricter international regulations, greater manufacturer responsibility, or something else – and what do you plan to do about it?