Where to Recycle Your Cell Phone
The EPA has launched a consumer-information campaign aimed to increase the number of cell phones that get recycled. According to their website: As cell phones, computers, and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) become more prominent in our everyday lives, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is taking steps to encourage consumers to recycle these products instead of adding them to our nation’s landfills... Cell phones and accessories are made from valuable resources such as precious metals, copper, and plastics - all of which require energy to extract and manufacture. Recycling cell phones reduces greenhouse gas emissions, keeps valuable material out of landfills and incinerators, and conserves natural resources. Recycling just a million cell phones reduces greenhouse gas emissions equal to taking 1,368 cars off the road for a year.
As part of this initiative, EPA’s Plug-In To eCycling program has teamed up with leading cell phone makers, service providers, and retailers to launch a national campaign encouraging Americans to recycle or donate their unwanted cell phones. The “Recycle Your Cell Phone. It’s An Easy Call” campaign aims to increase the public’s awareness of cell phone recycling and donation opportunities...
EPA has targeted cell phone recycling because, despite the large number of programs, most consumers still do not know where or how they can recycle their cell phones. Consequently, less than 20 percent of unwanted cell phones are recycled each year.
There are also places to donate old cell phones. Collective Good and Recycle Wireless Phones accept phones, pagers and PDAs. They sell them, donate the money to the charity of your choice, and you get a tax credit. The Wireless Foundation accepts cell phones and uses the proceeds to fund their own charities, and again, you get a tax break.
Also, the US Copyright Office has ruled that it is perfectly legal to break the lock that your provider has put on your cell phone to prevent you from using it with another provider. I don't have the technical knowledge to tell you how to do this, but I invite anyone who can explain it to do a guest post on this blog. Or just leave an informative comment.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Don't Throw Away Old Cell Phones
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3 comments:
I don't know anyone who's broken the lock on their phone, but I think that's what a lot of iPhone owners tried to do... Apple then caused their phones to "brick" (ie become useless.) I think that court ruling came on the heels of that episode.
I have also heard that there is a way to donate old cell phones which are then sent to American soldiers in the Middle East, so that they can stay in touch with family. Not sure how the payment plan works-- I hope that phone comes with some free minutes, because a call from Afghanistan can't be cheap...
I also know that Best Buy has plastic envelopes that you can pick up to mail your old cell phones to them to be recycled. I've done it... just another option I thought I'd share...
Some of the AT&T stores will use the proceeds for Cell Phones For Soldiers - you just need to check with your store to make sure they support the program. What they do is provide calling cards to active military.
A number of the other carriers and cell phone retailers also have worthy charities where they send the proceed from their cell phone recycling programs. For example, T-Mobile sends their proceeds to after school programs in the inner cities, and Sprint supports missing and explorited children programs. Staples supports some environemtnal programs and Best Buy supports the Boys and Girls clubs.
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