Some, or perhaps many, of you are planning to acquire a new cell phone this time of the year. Some of you may even have received a brand new mobile phone as Christmas gift.
So, what to do with the old ones? Here is where the concept of mobile phone recycling will enter.
Mobile phones that are just thrown away accumulate to over 65,000 tons of electronic garbage per year. And it is being said that if customers recycled their phones instead, they would save enough energy to power more than 194,000 homes every year.
Fortunately, recycling is easier than ever. Here are some helpful programs from different phone institutions:
Verizon’s Customers can drop off cell phones and batteries at selected Verizon stores. These gadgets are then refurbished or safely scrapped. The carrier donates some of the retooled phones to HopeLine, a nonprofit agency that assists victims of domestic violence, or sells them to other carriers and donates the money to charity.
Eco-Cell pays $15 per phone that any group collects. It works with 300 nonprofits, including 30 zoos in cities including Cleveland, Denver, Philadelphia and Phoenix. Eco-cell recycled about 75,000 phones this year vs. 10,000 a few years ago.
CollectiveGood fix and resold phones to distributors and carriers to sell in developing countries, donating the proceeds to the donor’s favorite charity. The Center For Domestic Violence Prevention, The Humane Society of the United States, and Friends of the Congo are some of the organizations helped by the program. This year, CollectiveGood also let donors support Barack Obama’s and John McCain’s presidential campaigns.
ReCellular manages the in-store collection programs for Best Buy BBY, Bell Mobility, Sprint Nextel S, T-Mobile DT, and Verizon. The company maintains partnerships with Easter Seals, the March of Dimes, Goodwill Industries and other nonprofits that undertake cell phone collection drives as a way to raise funds for these charitable works.
Cell Phones for Soldiers help U.S. soldiers stationed overseas call home — in a roundabout way. Founded by two U.S. teenagers with $21 of their own money, Cell Phones for Soldiers collects about 15,000 cell phones per month though 3,000 collection sites around the country. Proceeds buy prepaid calling cards troops can use to call home. The organization has raised almost $1 million in donations and doled out more than 400,000 calling cards.
Gazelle.com bills itself as a cash-for-trash-style recycling service. Users can send proceeds from their old gadgets directly to any of dozens of nonprofits, including the American Cancer Society, Boy Scouts of America, Habitat for Humanity, and Goodwill Industries.
Cash to recycle programs like the one used by CashOldPhone.com and Ibuyphones.com will refurbish or recycle your unused handset and pay you a portion of the earnings.
