Where Can You Recycle Cellphones? Everywhere.

Recycling cell phones is one of the easiest ways you can protect the planet.

• Leave it behind when you buy a new phone. Sprint, Verizon,T-Mobile, AT&T, Nokia, and Motorola all participate in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s “Plug in to e-cycling” program and will accept any cell phone or PDA at any of their retail outlets.

• Take it to Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Staples, Office Depot, or Radio Shack. Most outlets will have a box you can drop your phone in with absolutely no hassle.

*  Send it to Collective Good, a company that refurbishes the phones, re-sells them, and shares the profits with the charity of your choice. Address:

Collective Good International
Include Charity Code
5763 ARAPAHOE AVE STE G
Boulder, CO 80303-1350

Why bother? Every week, 3 million cell phones are thrown away. More than 1 billion used mobile phones clutter our shelves, take up space in our drawers or worse – are decaying in landfills.

Cell phones are constructed with a host of heavy metals - like antimony, arsenic, beryllium, cadmium, copper, lead, mercury, nickel and zinc – that can pollute ground water and potentially cause cancer. Recovering those metals for re-use keeps them out of the environment and makes them available for reuse in other electronics manufacturing.

Have an APPLE I-Phone or IPOD you need to unload?   Apple’s Recycling Program provides prepaid mailing label you can download from the company website.

Recycle used phone batteries, too. The Rechargeable Battery Recycling Coalition links to 50,000 locations, including Target, Lowe's Home Depot and Office Max. 

Want more ways to recycle your phone? Here are 50, courtesy of VOIP.
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Research by Rachel Goglia

Comments

[Aaron]

Good to see people interested in helping others find ways to get rid of electronic waste. Remember that we need to recycle computer parts (monitors, CPUs, etc.) and fluorescent lamps too. Check out my blog at blog.lamprecycling.com for more news and updates about these areas.

[Green Fundraising Ideas]

This is great info for EVERYONE! It seems most people have 2-3 phones just sittin' around...

[Kate]

I am glad to hear that all the major phone carriers take used cell phones. When I make a change in the future, I will definitely take advantage of that.

[Joost Hoogstrate]

Hi Diane, your post about recycling cell phones was really something. We hardly knew what to do with our old phones when we got new ones. As you said, they were unnecessarily cluttering space or decaying in some corner. Now we know that we can act responsibly and hand over our cell phones to these organizations that can refurbish them and use them all over again. You may also refer http://climatarians.org to find more about this and related topics.

Great revelation

Joost Hoogstrate

[Diane MacEachern]

I'm glad you found this so helpful!

[Bianca]

I usually just keep my phones because I don't know what to do with them and they cost too much money to just throw away, but this is a good alternative to just holding on to something I'm not going to use anymore. I hope that more people start to recycle their phones because I know a lot of my friends either hold on to them or throw them in the trash. It's also good that it is convenient for people to recycle them because people like convenience and it would be more motivation for them to recycle the phones.

[Cellphones4us]

recycling cell phones is the one of the easiest way to protect the planet, in these days doing that process to protect the planet, so guys if u want to through a cell phone, just to that type of company.

http://cellphones4us.com/

[Smartphone]

Recycling cell phones is one of the easiest ways you can protect the planet.

[Tadalis]

Yes, Recycling cell phones is one of the easiest ways you can protect the planet. Surveys suggest that less than 10% of U.S. consumers dispose of their old cell phones either by selling them or through other recycling methods. This leaves more than 11 million cell phones to pile up every month in the homes of America.

[Recycle Mobile Phones]

I think we're all a bit guilty of hoarding old mobile phones, I know I have a few tucked away in a drawer. I know I'm not going to use them again but I've just been too lazy to recycle them. However, when it comes round to a spring cleaning I'll definitely try to recycle them. Throwing them in the bin would be the easier option but it's also the most harmful one and for that reason people should never do it.

[Laura, Adult Tricycle]

Not only is it better for the environment, it really helps out developing countries if you recycle your phone (most end up in developing co.s).

[Find phone recyclers]

I agree recycling your old mobile phone or any gadgets is a great way to help save our environment from the toxic waste this gadgets could produce.

[sell my mobile]

In today's world, where a new phone is launched almost every alternate day, we must take recycling seriously and not just a way to make money frm. old goods. Join recycling campaign, save the environment and save the planet!!

[Sell My Cell Phone]

Agreed with the comments. Selling used cell phones is way better than leaving it to your desk or cabinets and be eaten by dust. It's a win-win situation as you can help minimize the e-waste and get yourself instant cash.

[Karen Carter]

It is true that recycling cell phones is one of the easiest ways that citizens can protect the planet. We can debase the high possibility of destroying our planet.