What are some of the regulations about cell phone waste?
In general, companies take part in the responsibility of taking back the e-waste resulted from their products.
Are the regulations the same everywhere, which countries have different regulations?
In 2005, two important directives were published in the European Union. The first stipulates that: 1) all manufacturers selling electrical and electronic equipment in and to EU countries label the equipment to inform customers that it must be recycled and 2) make sure that their products are properly disposed of or recycled after the life cycle. The second requires manufacturers to eliminate or minimize the use of lead, mercury, hexavalent chromium, cadmium, polychrome and diphelin biphenyl ethers in electrical and electronic equipment sold in the EU after 1 July 2006.
New technology to reduce waste?
Companies are trying to reduce the amount of resources needed in order to create their products. One alternative is the modular smarthphones, which aims to reduce the amount of e-waste of the phone by only upgrading a few elements of hardware.