Few users may have noticed the warning at the back of their mobile phone battery, or care that its hazardous chemical waste should not be simply chucked into the bin.
Businessman Nick Thompson has noticed. He has several waste batteries - which contain nickel-metalhydrate and lithium ions, and 'may explode if damaged or disposed of in fire', according to the warnings. He would like to dispose of them responsibly but doesn't know where, or how. 'I went to a supplier, and asked them: 'Do you dispose of the old ones?',' he says. 'They looked at me as if I was crazed or from another planet.' Only one of the six mobile phone networks disposes of waste batteries for environmentally conscious consumers. Most still end up in the bin.
Eugene Tang Yee-kin of phone-maker Siemens says 1.5 million handsets were sold in Hong Kong last year. 'Though it greatly varies, a new battery lasts about a year, so there are about 1.5 million waste ones per year,' he says.
Queensway Junior Chamber vice-president Nini Chia Nyuk-ni said: 'It is hilarious that they tell you not to carelessly throw the battery away, but no guidelines are given. Everyone uses mobile phones and people keep changing models, it is bound to have an adverse effect on the environment when they just discard the batteries into rubbish bins and then the waste is simply taken to landfills.' Meanwhile, she is working on an Earth Day 30th anniversary campaign in April which aims to raise awareness. 'It is difficult to collect the waste batteries because they are scattered. It is best to make it a rule that people have to return their old battery before they can buy a new one,' she says.
Return them to where? Networks say customers rarely ask that the batteries be collected. SmarTone is the only one which provides the service.
Cable and Wireless HKT says it takes the batteries back along with old handsets when customers trade them in, selling them on to second-hand phone shops.
Peoples says it will employ a licensed chemical waste collector if necessary, while Hutchison Telecom says it refuses to take back waste batteries.
