Instead of trashing your treasured cell phone, recycle it.
The landfills are filling. It was bound to happen eventually. In a disposable society, it’s become second nature to just throw things out.
What gets thrown out more and more often are electronic machines like computers, personal digital assistants, and increasingly, cell phones. With billions of cell phones accumulating in trash bins, discarded like so much flotsam, an apocalyptic environmental disaster is just waiting to happen. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Cell phones can be recycled.
Even the Environmental Protection Agency has leaped onto the recycling bandwagon in 2008. Last year’s EPA initiative, “Recycle Your Cell Phone, It’s an Easy Call” was joined by Big Corporate in the form of AT &T, Best Buy, LG Electronics, Motorola, Nokia, Office Depot, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Sprint, Staples, T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless.
Public service announcements heralded the campaign in print, touting environmental, social, and convenient benefits entailed with recycling cell phones. Downloadable podcasts discussed how and why in technical terms. Special cell phone collection events were hosted. Did I mention that cell phone recycling is usually free? Some programs even bought cell phones back from consumers so that they could be recycled. Dropping them off or mailing them in was made easy.
But now it’s 2009. The Bush Era is over; enter Obama. Is the Easy Call campaign still in the forefront of your mind? If it isn’t, it should be. Cell phones are still filling landfills at an alarming rate. Cell phones are made from precious metals, copper, and plastics – all of which require energy to mine or manufacture. They’re not just a gift from Oz, simply appearing in reality and disappearing when you throw them out.
Even if a government campaign isn’t in full swing in your area, there are plenty of avenues for recycling your cell phones. Donate them to a charity of your choice while helping the charity earn recycling dollars. Manufacturers and independent retail shops will accept them for refurbishing, if not always for recycling. If you wish to recycle, an independent repair shop will usually know the best way to do it. You can go green. You just have to want to do so.
Jeff Gasner is with CPR-Cell Phone repair. The leader in Cell Phone Repair and iPod repair offering cell phone repair services nationwide. To learn more about Cell phone repair, ipod repair, cell repair services, visit Chicagocellrepair.com.
