Ours is a developing - and poor - country with a per capita GDP of $1,970, giving us a ranking of 112th in the world. But that never seems to dissuade us from lavishing our money on the latest modern conveniences. The use of cell phones is an example.

Unofficial statistics (sorry, there aren't always authoritative statistics available in this country) indicate that China has no less than 400 million mobile telecommunications subscribers, and that on average they upgrade their mobile phones every two years.

Inaccurate as that might sound, the figures at least suggest that every few years hundreds of millions of cell phones end up at the backs of drawers or in waste collectors' sacks. This also means that for every replaced or stolen phone, a battery and adaptor are also rendered redundant. Just imagine the waste.

The essential and original function of a cell phone is to facilitate mobile communication - making a call or sending a text message while on the go. But people's taste for constant renewal has conferred new meaning on the cell phone: color screens, polyphonic ring tones, video games, MP3 players, digital cameras ... the list goes on. Each new modification triggers a wave of replacements as people dump their old models. Young people are the main target of these novel functions, but many middle-aged people, mostly higher- and middle-income earners, also frequently update their mobile phones as fashion dictates.

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