Contents
What's the Issue?
Reasons to Donate or Recycle
Recycling and Donation Options

What's the Issue With Old Cell Phones?
Do you have an old cell phone collecting dust on a shelf or in a drawer somewhere? You're not alone. There are more than 500 million used mobile phones in the US sitting on shelves or in our landfills, and another 125 million will be added to the shelves or landfills this year alone! The problem is growing at a rate of more than 2 million phones per week, putting tons of toxic waste into our landfills daily. This mountain of toxic waste poses a major threat to the environment, and an equally large opportunity to re-channel these devices into productive reuse. There are lots of programs that are based on the goal of diverting these useful devices to prevent them from harming the environment, and to help charities raise money so they can pursue more of their good deeds.

Reasons to Donate or Recycle:
Recycling or donating is preferred to sending your phone to a landfill via your household trash. Cell phones contain toxic mercury, cadmium, lead, galium arsenide and other poisonous materials. If these metals decompose after long periods of time and leak into ground water, they could poison streams, wildlife and drinking water. In addition to reducing the landfill hazards, reusing these metals will save the energy of mining new metallic ores and the impact of mining on the environment.

Given the massive number of cell phones that will need disposal in the future, manufacturers need to design cell phones for easier recycling and set up take-back and responsible recycling programs on a much larger scale than we have now.

Some manufacturers and many other organizations have created cell phone recycling and donation programs to benefit many causes, ranging from victims of domestic violence to the Cascade Chapter or the Sierra Club.

Recycling and Donation Options:
Before donating your cell phone, be sure to discontinue service and wait about a week before donating it. Here are some options:

Domestic Violence Center of Grays Harbor- 2306 Sumner Ave., Hoquiam, WA 98550; (360) 538-0733 or (800) 818-2194-accepts cell phones, which can be distributed as emergency phones to domestic violence victims and vulnerable adults served by Adult Protection Services, part of the state Dept. of Social and Health Services.

Under Federal Communications Commission regulations, all cell phones have the ability to dial 9-1-1, even after service has been canceled, so they can be of use to people at risk of assault.

Phones that aren't working are sent to the Shelter Alliance in Florida, which pays shelters up to $25 per phone and then recycles or sells them.

When donating to the Domestic Violence Center, please put the phone, its batteries, its charger and the manual in a Ziploc-style bag. Chargers are accepted but are not required. Do not include phone boxes or packaging materials. Hours at the Domestic Violence Center are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Staples - 1109 E. Wishkah Street, Aberdeen WA, 98520; 360-538-0536 - in partnership with CollectiveGood, Staples accepts cell phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), pagers and rechargeable batteries. Customers can recycle these devices by dropping them off at their local Staples store.

CollectiveGood - 4508 Bibb Blvd., Suite B-10, Tucker GA, 30084; 770-856-9021; www.collectivegood.com - accepts cell phones and cell phone accessories as well as pagers and PDAs such as Palm Pilots through the mail.

CollectiveGood refurbishes phones so they can be reused in the developing world, usually Latin America or the Caribbean, where they offer affordable communication to families. Phones that are beyond repair are safely recycled for metals and other materials.

Donors can give phones on behalf of the many charities partnered with CollectiveGood, ranging from the American Humane Association to victims of the tsunamis in Asia.

Charitable Recycling Program - 794-A Industrial Court, Bloomfield Hills, MI, 48302; 1-800-527-4700 ext. 301; www.charitablerecycling.com - Encourages the donation of used cell phones and will provide a monetary contribution to a charity for every cell phone donated, regardless of age or condition.

Recycle For Breast Cancer - PO Box 2929, San Ramon, CA, 94583; 1-800-315-9580; www.recycleforbreastcancer.org - a no-cost, national recycling program to help fight against breast cancer and benefit the environment. Accepts cell phones, pagers, and Palm Pilots for recycling and reuse.

EcoPhones - www.EcoPhones.com - helps educational, civic and religious organizations make money through a cell phone donation program. Organizations can sign up for the program and recieve up to $100 per donated cell phone.

Corporations - Visit www.recyclewirelessphones.org for a list of cell phone manufacturers and wireless companies - such as Nokia, Sprint and Verison - that offer their own recycling programs to benefit various charities.

Call2Recycle - http://www.call2recycle.org/ - Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation's Call2Recycle™ program collects used cellular phones to benefit the environment and charitable organizations. With the help of consumers and 30,000 participating retail locations, RBRC's do their part in helping to keep cell phones out of the landfills.