by John D Carmack

Created on: July 25, 2011

There’s nothing like a shiny new phone.  It can take a few days to pour over the menus, keys and manuals to learn all the new features, but it seems each succeeding generation of cell phones has such a greater capacity to communicate in faster and newer ways that it is worth it.

Afterwards, though, comes the dilemma, which may or may not have even been considered at the time, and that is what do you do with the old cell phone?  How should it be disposed of?  The US Environmental Protection Agency estimated on their webpage “

Cell Phones—A Treasure Trove of Valuable Metals” that as of 2005 that 130 million cell phones in the US are taken out of commission every year.  When cell phones and other obsolete electronics are disposed of in the normal garbage, hazardous materials are sometimes leaked into the ground and water supplies.  In addition, many of these items contain rare metals that can be extracted out and reused.  Old cell phones may also pose a risk for identity theft if safeguards are not taken.

Whether the phone still works or not, these are concerns that should be taken into consideration before disposing of the phone.  This does not have to be a daunting task, however, there is at least one company whose mission is to collect and either refurbish or recycle old cell phones.  Based out of Michigan, Recellular collected more than 2 million phones in 2005, according to the Cnet article “Recycling your phone, and your questions answered”.

If your phone is still working, you should clear it of all personal data before you dispose of it.  If you can find neither the manual nor the instructions online, Recellular has eraser instructions that can be emailed to you.  Simply select the manufacturer, model and provide them with your email address, and the instructions will be emailed to you.

On the same page, Recellular also has a link so you can phones.   You can choose a worthy cause or leave it up to a cellular carrier to dispose of the cell phone in a responsible manner.

In addition, many new phones now come with prepaid envelopes for mailing in the old phones for recycling.  Most cellular retails stores will now take drop-off phones for recycling as well.

Another website dedicated to recycling is Recycle My Phone.  What stands out about this program is that they will make every effort to refurbish, reset or reuse every phone.  Working parts will be extracted from phones and used in other ones.  If there are parts that are truly not usable, they are sent to EPA certified partners for proper disposal.  Their website states, “All cell phones collected by the Recycle My Cell Phone campaign will be recycled in a responsible manner.”

It is estimated by Recycle My Cell Phone that less than 2% of all retired cell phones are recycled in a responsible manner.  That means a lot of phones (and possibly personal data) are winding up in landfills.  It is time to reconsider this and not add to the ecological problems the world is facing.

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