To cut down on waste and protect the environment Shanghai should ensure mobile phone manufacturers use the same kind of battery in all handsets, a member of the city's Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference suggested yesterday.

The picture shows China Mobile, Motorola and Nokia jointly sponsored a "Green Box Environmental Project" last year designed to ensure the recycling of discarded mobile phones and batteries.

Zhu Jianguo said Shanghai should become a leader in the unification of handset batteries.

If the 400 million cell phone users in China changed handsets on average every two years and used two batteries each the country would discard 400 million batteries a year, Zhu explained. But if the system was unified people could continue to use their old batteries even when they purchased new phones.

Yu Jinbiao, president of the handset committee of the Shanghai Electronic Products Repair Service Association, said the city didn't have a facility big enough to deal with level of waste batteries.

"A battery will pollute six cubic meters of water which can supply a person for their entire life," Yu pointed out. "Those discarded batteries, if not collected and recycled properly, will finally enter the Huangpu River and cause heavy metal pollution."

Yu said Zhu's idea could work. "It's a creative and feasible suggestion if the government is willing to accept it."

Two other delegates, Huang Farong and Chen Yingnan, suggested that residents should hand over used batteries or pay more when purchasing replacements. 

Their proposal calls for battery retailers to return used batteries to the original manufacturers. They'd then be responsible for giving them to the environmental protection bureau for final disposal.

They said a campaign to encourage people to deposit used batteries in recycling boxes in residential complexes and some stores hadn't been successful. Compulsory government rules were required for recycling to work.

(China.org.cn, Shanghai Daily February 2, 2007)