EPA Dedicates Week to Cell Phone Recycling
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is promoting the importance of recycling cellular phones with the help of phone manufacturers and retailers that are members of EPA’s Plug-In To eCycling program. The event started April 6 and will run through April 10.
The average cell phone is replaced after 18 months, and the circuitry inside can contain mercury or other hazardous materials. The EPA claims that only 10 percent of these unwanted phones were recycled in 2007, with many phones being stored in a garage instead of disposed at all.
The EPA kicked off its effort to promote cell phone recycling on April 6. Photo: Cohesion.rice.edu
Sprint has been specifically pushing phone recycling and has set a goal of collecting 250,000 phones during April. Other partners in the Plug-In to eCycling program are setting up in-store promotions and contests to encourage recycling.
“With Earth Day approaching, people are thinking about what they can do to give back to our planet,” says Matt Hale, director of EPA’s Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery. “Recycling your old cell phone is a great way to conserve resources and help make a greener world.”
In many cases, a donated phone doesn’t even need to be recycled. Millions of phones are donated every year to charities, including organizations like Cell Phones for Life, which provides phones for people with disabilities and battered women shelters. The phones are often used for emergencies because cell phones don’t need to be connected to a service provider to be able to dial 911.
The EPA has produced a series of podcasts to promote cell phone recycling.
As of June 17th 2011 we have upgraded our comment system to use Facebook comments. The below comments are closed and are listed for historical purposes.
michelle kaufmann’s blog » Blog Archive » it’s “recycle your cell phone week!”
posted on April 7th, 2009 at 3:35 pm
[...] Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless.” Find out more from the EPA website or by visiting Earth 911. [...]
John Shepler
posted on April 8th, 2009 at 7:09 pm
There’s also a way you can get paid to recycle your newer cellphones and other electronic gadgets. Details are at http://t1rex.blogspot.com/2009/04/get-paid-to-celebrate-national-cell.html
It’s a way to get some cash for yourself and keep toxic waste out of the environment.
Shaik Rahman
posted on April 22nd, 2009 at 5:17 pm
I founded this NPO, to educate the comunity for proper recycling. I also own a wireles reatail stores, we are really heavy on recycling every thing we can. I love earth911, lots of valuable information in it. Thanks
Shaik Rahman
posted on April 22nd, 2009 at 5:32 pm
Sorry i thought it would say my url on the comment, but here it is http://www.gogreenbcs.org very small with big dream. wish us luck.
Donate Your Cell Phone to Aid ‘Catastrophic’ Haiti « - The Green Trash Can Blog
posted on January 17th, 2010 at 11:02 am
[...] more than 1 billion used phones sitting on household shelves, chances are you may have that old Nokia in a box at the top of your [...]