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Loading ...Digitizing Environmental Enforcement
Saturday, August 4th, 2007Minas Gerais is moving to accomplish something no other Brazilian state — or probably any Latin American/ Caribbean (LAC) nation, for that matter — has yet done: digitize its environmental inspection and enforcement. Currently Minas is winding up a pilot project in which its 21 waste and sanitation inspectors do much of their work utilizing […]
Motorola Launches Cell Phone Take-Back Program in Latin America
Saturday, July 28th, 2007Synopsis in English: Motorola has announced that it is extending its take-back program to Latin America. Under the program, all Authorized Motorola Service locations in each country will have bins in which cell phones, two-way radios and accessories (chargers, wires, earphones) and batteries. Motorola began taking back cell phone batteries in Brazil 1999, and to […]
Cell Phone Battery Agreement Signed in Colombia
Wednesday, May 9th, 2007Synopsis in English: Last Friday the agreement (convenio) between the Colombian Government and the cell phone industry concluded a few weeks back was formally signed in Bogotá. In the process, a few of the questions I posed in my prior post were answered –well, partially at least. But it also raised a few new ones.
A Cell Phone Recycling Deal for Chile
Tuesday, April 24th, 2007Movistar and Nokia have announced a major cell phone recycling program for Chile. Movistar is a subsidiary of Spain’s Grupo Telefónica that is Chile’s leading mobile telephone service provider (5.5 million clients by end-2006, versus 5 million for Entel PCS and 2 million for Claro). Under the program, “ReciclaMe” (“recycle me”) drop off points (such […]
Colombia Gets Cell Phone Battery Agreement
Friday, April 20th, 2007According to a Colombia daily, El Tiempo, the Ministry of Environment, Housing and Territorial Development (MAVDT) has signed an agreement (“convenio”) with the cellular telephone industry to collect and export spent cell phone batteries. The agreement was signed by the major providers of cell phone service in the country, including Avantel, the industry associations for […]
Greener Cell Phones?
Saturday, January 13th, 2007Last weekend while catching up on my reading I ran across an article in TierrAmérica entitled “Cell Phones Getting Greener.” Its gist is that that the European Union’s (EU) RoHS Directive will result in cell phones with less toxic material circulating in Latin America and the Caribbean, and that more and more end-of-life (EOL) phones […]
Major Cell Phone Recycling Deal for Brazil
Thursday, November 30th, 2006In an earlier article, I asked how long would it take for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) to wake up to its looming end-of-life (EOL) cellular telephone (“cell phone”) problem. Evidently some have already awakened. On Tuesday ReCellular Inc., a Michigan-based collector, reseller and recycler of used wireless cell phones and their accessories, has […]
Electronic Recyclers of America Launches Joint Venture With Azcarraga Family to Recycle Mexican Electronic Waste
Saturday, November 11th, 2006From the California Commission for Jobs and Economic Growth: Electronic Recyclers of America Launches Joint Venture With Azcarraga Family to Recycle Mexican Electronic Waste California’s largest recycler of electronic waste and the family that founded Mexican television network, Televisa, today announced they have formed Electronic Recyclers International (ERI), a Mexican joint venture to recycle millions […]
Judging the Electronic Firms Revisited
Wednesday, September 20th, 2006Since I wrote my prior Temas blog entry on the Greenpeace “report card” on “greener electronics,” I have read a number of interesting reviews of the GP report written by other blogs. Two examples I suggest reading: Treehugger’s analysis and the debate in Dan Dilger’s “Roughly Drafted” blog on all things Apple. Reading these have […]
The Other Side of the Cell Phone Revolution
Monday, September 4th, 2006Not Our Problem? A few years ago I was chatting with someone who is involved with the process of formulating a national policy on the management of solid wastes in Brazil. We had gotten to the question of which, if any, end-of-life (EOL) products should be declared to be “special wastes” and therefore subject to […]