Monday, December 5, 2011

Cell Phone Recycling: The Business Players

One of the frequently asked questions of cell phone users is what will happen to their old cell phone after they have upgraded. They are curious if these old phones will be really recycled by stores and given to the unfortunate ones or they just end up in a landfill.

As the number of cell phone users increase, they are now becoming big competitors of the monitors and computers when it comes to the contribution to the ever-increasing ecological waste problem of the earth. Indeed, these electronics that contain tons of toxins are already clogging the world's landfills while polluting the groundwater supplies and the air from one coast to another.

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An average citizen of North America usually gets a new phone within every 18 to a maximum of 24 months. That is why those old phones that can actually contain dangerous materials such as mercury, lead, arsenic, cadmium and brominated flame retardants are now considered to be the kind of manufactured garbage that are growing rapidly in the nation. EPA or the Environmental Protection Agency says that 125 million phones are being discarded by the Americans yearly, which is equivalent to a waste of 65, 000 tons.
The good news is that there is now a new group of electronic recyclers who can help a lot.

A nonprofit organization, the Call2Recycle offers retailers and consumers in the areas of Canada and United States a lot of various ways of recycling those old phones. In their website, the consumers can already put their zip codes and will be directed to their area's drop box. Many of the major retailers of electronics, like Radio Shack and Office Depot, are already participants in the said program and they even offer the organization to put drop boxes in their respective stores. Call2Rercycle will be the one to recover all the phones and then sell them to the manufacturers, which will then refurbish, resell or recycle the parts so that they can be used for new products.

Meanwhile, CollectiveGood is an organization that takes the cell phones that are already used, refurbishes and resells them to the carriers and distributors so that the developing countries can make use of these and poorer citizens will be able to have a communication that is affordable so that the digital divide will be bridged. And through the help of Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation, they can also recycle batteries that are no longer functioning. If you will donate your old phone to the organization, you can also give the sales' profits to your chosen charity.

ReCellular is also another player in this business, wherein they manage the programs for in-store collection of Sprint PCS, Bell Mobility, T- Mobile, Verizon and Best Buy. The company also holds partnership with the Easter Seals, March of Dimes, the Goodwill Industries and other companies that are nonprofit. They use the collection of used cell phones as a way for acquiring funds for their charitable work. According to Mike Newman, the vice-president of ReCellular, their company is trying to alter the common attitudes toward cell phones that are already used so that they can instill in the customers that recycling mobile phones are just like recycling papers, plastics and glass.

Both Canada and the United States do not mandate the electronic recycling of all kinds at the level of the federal government but there are already some states which are making the first move and initiative. Just recently, California passed the very first law on cell phone recycling in North America. As of the 1st of July 2006, the electronics retailers must also have their own cell phone recycling system so that they can sell their products legally, may it be in store or online.

Cell Phone Recycling: The Business Players

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