Hábitos de consumo e descarte de aparelhos celulares em Londrina/Pr

Abstract

This essay highlights the main habits of consumption and disposal of cellular phones in Londrina/PR. It focuses on the problem generated by devices that do not have an environmentally appropriate destination, and it discusses possible solutions for this issue. The overall purpose of the essay was to identify the main habits of consumption and the destination that the Londrina population would be willing to give to the cellular phones which are no longer in use. The methodology consisted of distributing questionnaires to the target audience of Londrina residents that visited street markets. The questionnaire was composed by three groups of questions. The first group had as a purpose to quantify and qualify the individuals that participated in the study: the gender of the interviewee, neighborhood in which he lives, age, if he owns a cellular phone, and if so, how many. The second group had the objective to verify how the habits of consumption happen: how long ago he acquired a new cellular phone, if the interviewee had already acquired a new cellular phone even if his was still in good condition and why. The third one, in gathering data about the current disposal and the favorite way of disposing of a cellular phone by the person interviewed. A total of 390 questionnaires were distributed at six street markets located in different places in town which were located throughout the five regions of the city. The main results found were that 97.7% of the interviewees owned a cellular phone, 67.7% acquired their cellular phone in the past year, 64.3% had their used devices stored at home, those being an average of two cellular phones per person. The preferred disposal option is to return the cellular phone to the store in order to obtain a discount when buying a new one, and through the analyses of the G Test it is possible to affirm that the residential area, age, having already acquired a new cell phone even when the one owned was still in good condition, if this person would acquire a new one more often if finances would not be a limiting factor, and if he had already thrown away a cellular phone with their domestic trash were variables that influenced the decision of the favorite way of disposal of the cellular phones. In conclusion, it was observed that the profiles of the cellular phone users may be attached to consumption, being 82.2% of the classified sample users of only one device. From the sample, 87.9% of users acquired a new cellular phone within two years. The preferred ways of disposal were summarized in two options: "obtaining a discount when buying a new cellular phone" (43.6%) and “dropping them off at Eco-points” (27.6%). This essay was able to supply objective data for the public and private initiatives so that they can set targets and strategies in dealing with the problem of cellular phones as disposable devices.