Habits related to the post-consumption discard of mobile phones and their batteries within an academic community

Abstract

The contemporary society increasingly incorporates electric and electronic equipments (EEE) in its everyday life, many of them containing dangerous substances that represent threats to the environment and risks to human health. This article presents the results of an exploratory research with the objective of investigating the behavior of post-consumption discard of mobile phones and their batteries in a group of consumers of mobile phones who are in contact, in their work and study, with information about public and environmental health. The results of the research indicate that information can approximate the people to the problem; however, it does not lead, by itself, to the production of significant alterations on how to perform the post-consumption discard. The study's participants enabled to identify that besides information and access to specific collectors, other personal or collective aspects and criteria interfere in the discard procedure: risk perception, economic value available in the purchase of the mobile phone and affective bonds, among others. Those factors can produce different responses of users concerning how to deal with the technological innovations of personal use.