If you’ve been thinking about getting the rumored iPhone coming out this summer, or getting a slick new Blackberry, then you need to stop and consider what will happen to your current phone. In the US, wireless carriers often subsidize the cost of a phone when a customer signs a new contract. Having signed a few contracts in the past decade, I’m guilty of getting a new phone for the most trendy gimmicks offered by carriers. Who hasn’t been sold on a cool color alone?
The US currently has about 153 million cellar phone subscribers. Only 10% of all broken or inactive cell phones are recycled each year. Do the math. The rest end up in landfills or incinerators.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is actually launching the National Cell Phone Recycling Week on April 6-12, 2009. The EPA’s pitch is simple. By recycling phones the raw materials can be re-used and save on the electric costs of manufacturing new materials, such as copper, plastic, and glass. By recycling, I’m helping save enough power to keep 2,035 households powered-up for the entire year.
I’ve looked into recycling programs like this in the past, and trying to mail back my cell phone to a recycling center a few states away seemed ridiculous. Luckily the EPA got it right this time, and partnered with several major carriers, allowing the public to drop off their old phones at Verizon Wireless, LG Electronics, Sony Ericsson, AT&T, Sprint, Samsung, T-Mobile, Motorola, Staples, and Office Depot stores. For those too lazy to bother, the program still offers ways to mail in phones.
If you do have a working phone, I’ll also suggest you consider donating it the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Donate A Phone or Phones For Life. Both programs give the phones to those in need. Best of all, the donations are tax deductable.
Do the planet some good and put your old phone to use.
Photo: TheGiantVermin
