San Fran Music Festival to Recycle Cell Phones

This year’s Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival in San Francisco will feature a new headliner: cell phone recycling. Sponsored by environmental advocacy organization Rock the Earth, the campaign is a part of the concert’s Eco Lands Passport, an initiative that rewards concert-goers with “stamps” for completing green activities.

“Outside Lands is excited to have partnered with Rock the Earth to handle our cell phone recycling program at the festival,” said festival producer Bryan Duquette of Another Planet Entertainment. “It’s important to educate concert goers on the harmful effects cell phones have on the environment when not disposed of properly.”

Along with the Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival, Rock the Earth is partnering with big names such as the Allman Brothers Band and Widespread Panic to offer cell phone recycling at their concerts.

The average lifespan of a cell phone is about 18 months, so the waste can really pile up. Each year, 100 million cell phones are made obsolete by upgrades or damage that makes them unusable. In 2007, the recycling rate for cell phones was only 10 percent, according to the EPA. Recycling cell phones is paramount, as they contain toxic chemicals such as lead, mercury, cadmium, etc.

Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival is among several festivals that are going green. Bonnaroo and VANS Warped Tour are just two examples of major festivals that are incorporating the environment into the music scene. If you don’t have the dough for a ticket to your local music festival, no worries: There are several national programs that recycle cell phones around the country.