According to this article in the China Post, about seven million cell phones were sold in Taiwan last year, but the Environmental Protection Administration managed to collect only 2.34 million old phones between April 2006 and February 2008. I'm sure millions of old phones are sitting in people's homes. I'm sure plenty were tossed in with regular trash and incinerated or dumped in landfills. How many were unofficially recycled? Don't tell me there are no unlicensed breakers operating in the backstreets, especially now the price of gold is so high...
The article is about recycling. No mention is made of refurbishing old phones for reuse by low-income families in Taiwan or people in other countries.
Cell-phone recycling has been mandatory in Taiwan for two years, but enforcement seems to be non-existent. People should be compelled to pay a deposit whenever they get a new handset - NT$1,000 at least - which they'd get back only when they hand the phone in for recycling or refurbishing.
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I think many phones are gathered and refurbished for use in places like China and Africa. In China, one often sees street "vendors" with signs asking to buy used handsets. In shops - such as supermarkets - in the phone section - you can see refurbished handsets sometimes with the AT*T or Sprint logo still on them, etc.
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