Why Your Old Cell Phone Could Cost You Cash
by Jennifer Berry
Published on December 23rd, 2008
7 Comments
If you open up the top drawer of your desk, will you find last year’s cell phone collecting dust? Did your most recent upgrade put your old phone out of commission and into a forgotten shoebox in the garage?
You’re not alone. In a recent study by Sprint nearly 90 percent of those surveyed stated having one or more unused mobile phones sitting at home. Additionally, a recent study by the U.S. EPA showed that in 2007, only 10 percent of the cell phones that were ready for end-of-life management were recycled.
“Consumers hold onto phones because they feel there should still be value attached to it,” said Darren Beck, community relations manager for Sprint. “The best thing to do is [recycle] it today and not let it sit in a drawer.”
Sprint’s recycling programs have kept more than 15 million wireless phones out of landfills and have generated more than $6 million in charitable contributions since 2001.
As of this year, Sprint was recycling at a 34 percent rate of its annual sales, up from 22.4 percent last year. The company is committed to increasing this rate to 90 percent by 2017.
As the holidays approach and the economic outlook for most people continues to look not-so-merry, cell phones are still a hot ticket item for gifts. As consumers look to purchase new phones, being aware of reuse and recycling options is a must.
Return of the Dinosaurs
You can recycle any wireless phones, accessories, batteries, and data cards for free through Sprint’s Project Connect, regardless of carrier, condition or age. Free postage-paid envelopes are available at any Sprint-owned retail store nationwide, in the box with more than 90 percent of the new wireless devices that the carrier sells or online at the Sprint website. The net proceeds from the equipment collected help keep kids safer online.
“We get some relics and dinosaurs,” said Alex Hahn, public relations manager for Sprint. “We even get the first cell phones that ever came out, that are backpack-sized. Some are 8 inches tall by 4 inches wide.”
If you do have a newer phone, all the better. According to Beck, the longer you wait to recycle your cell phone, the less value it will have in a potential trade-in situation. For example, the Sprint Buyback program offers an account credit of $10-50 for select Sprint and Nextel-branded handsets for active customers. The program offers free shipping.
Phones in this program, and other cell phone recycling programs, derive their value based on their demand. Newer phones tend to drive a higher buy-back credit, making it advantageous for consumers to reuse and recycle sooner than later. Even if you are not eligible for the Sprint Buyback program, the essentials are the same: your old phone is like a used car. The newer it is, the more value it has – charitably or otherwise.
When phones are collected, reuse is Sprint’s first priority. More than 90 percent of the 3.2 million of the handsets collected in 2007 by the company were reused. “We’re looking to reuse because it’s the most environmentally friendly thing you can do with the phone,” said Beck. “We can put that phone back in the hands of someone else who can find value in it.”
Scrap-cycling
According to Hahn, “the large majority of the phones we reuse go back into a Sprint owned and operated facility in Texas, where we make sure they are workable and reliable, and are put back in the hand of customers as replacement phones.”
But while reuse is the fate for most recycled cell phones, some are in a condition that puts them 
beyond working order, in which case it is dismantled for parts and base materials. Through Sprint’s Zer0 E-Waste policy, none of the wireless equipment collected enters the general waste stream (ie: landfills or waste incinerators). In addition, Sprint does not ship any electronic scrap to underdeveloped countries, and all of Sprint’s recycling vendors are contractually obligated to follow the same policies and are audited to ensure compliance.
The materials collected from recycling become a number of new products. For example, waste from metals reclamation is used in asphalt production and exhausted cell phone batteries are used to manufacture aftermarket car batteries. “Your phone could actually become a new roadbed,” said Hahn.
Trey Granger
posted on December 23rd, 2008 at 8:52 am
So after reading the title, I totally thought there was going to be some charge for storing obsolete phones. Isn’t it sad that these are the kinds of things that would motivate people to recycle more? Oh well, I better take my old phone to the recycling bin.
Steven
posted on December 23rd, 2008 at 10:39 am
I didn’t know you could recycle old phones. That would be a great marketing campaign for the cell phone companies with the whole “go green” trend. Really interesting article thanks!
Kathy
posted on December 25th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
Recycling is one of my “things” to do. Newspapers, magazines, plastic, glass, cans of every sort. When I am done with it there is a stack or bag that it goes into. My car is a 1971 bug almost everything in it came from another bug even the engine has been rebuilt. The tires are retreads and the battery is reconditioned. It annoys my kids but that makes it even better. It is in great shape and starts even if it is really cold in Silt, CO. That is much better than my husbands 2001 VW Beatle. It has a radiator and a diesel engine (has not started for 3 days). The only thing it has (when it starts) is a heater with forced air. I will take my old one any day over his. Thanks for letting me vent.
Laura
posted on January 4th, 2009 at 5:34 pm
I recycled my old cell phones and this company provided me with the pre-paid packaging labels. All I had to do was buy padded envelopes— which for 10 of them it was only 4 bucks!!! Its called http://www.recyclemycellphone.org You can even print out a page for tax records!!!! They also donate $1 to EarthWorks for every phone received. Good website!
CarlB
posted on February 2nd, 2009 at 10:54 am
If cell ‘phone companies would stop ‘locking’ handsets in such a way as to prevent their owners from continuing to use them after they switch providers, maybe there wouldn’t be so many unused handsets gathering dust. This particular anti-competitive tactic should’ve been prohibited years ago, but no one wants to stand up to big business and big money, so the heap of locked, incompatible or useless hardware continues to grow… to the detriment of consumers who paid good money for the hardware when it was new.
Karen
posted on February 8th, 2009 at 9:32 am
I have a not-so-old LG cell phone which fell in water a year ago and I want to recycle it, but all my memory is still in the phone, although it’s completely broken. Can I recycle it safely thru this site or another site, without a company not getting hold of my information? There’s no memory chip in the phone where I can erase the memory from. I haven’t recycled it yet because of this reason. Is there someone out there who can advise me on how to handle this and which is the best place to use to recycle this phone?
candy
posted on December 9th, 2009 at 3:07 pm
hey, old non working cell phones and most other electronic or computer parts contain precious metals like GOLD and PLATNIUM!!! do not pay to donate them to a fat cat company that will make alot of money from the metals in this stuff. just sell them for metals recovery on ebay!! you should get paid for your stuff and keep it out of the landfill at the same time. if you toss your old electronics into the trash, you are actualy throwing gold into the trask!! all you need to do to verify this is take the battery out of your cell phone and look at it. you will see that where the battery contacts like up with the contacts on the phone itself are yellow colored. well that is 22kt gold plating on the conectors. the circuit board is gold plated. even simple video game cartriges are made of gold!!! just think, these big recyclers are in it for the money.most could care less about the enviroment!!!