Posts Tagged ‘why recycle’

Recycle Your Phone - Law Says You HAVE To

Wednesday, June 25th, 2008

Mobile Phone Clamp Down - Recycling Becoming Mandatory

Mobile Phone Clamp Down - Recycling Becoming Mandatory by Rick Hendershot

Westchester County in New York will soon be one of the first places in the U.S. to require consumers to recycle their old cell phones. The legislation will be backed up by fines of up to $250 for people caught trashing their old phones.

Jurisdictions across the country have been wrestling with the problem of outdated phones ending up in landfills and being burned in incinerators. The phones contain harmful chemicals and heavy metals like arsenic, zinc, copper and lead.

Many areas of the country have voluntary recycling programs. Most put the onus on cell phone retailers to recycle phones when new ones are purchased. But the New York county law is one of the first that makes it mandatory for consumers to recycle their old phones — and backs it up with fines.
(more…)

Why Recycle Your Phone

Wednesday, June 25th, 2008

Recycle cell phones? Absolutely!

Did you know that you can actually recycle your old or used cell phones? If you’re like most people, you probably have one or two hidden in a drawer somewhere. In a few months or years, you’ll rediscover these hidden phones and having no further use to you, these old units will most likely end up in your garbage bin and thence, in your city’s landfill.

But there’s a better, more environmentally-responsible, even more profitable way to dispose of your old mobile phones. Cell phone recycling is the answer.

There may be around 700 million used or old cellular phones in America today, with approximately 125 million discarded handsets added every year. According to a study done by a market intelligence firm iSuppli Corporation in 2007, 36.8 percent stored their phones in their drawers, 10.2 percent threw them away or declared these as lost or stolen, and only 9.4 percent recycled their used or old phones. In actual numbers, that’s 10 million old mobile phones rotting away in our country’s landfills and 37 million more gathering dust in the drawers of America - and that’s from 2007 alone!
(more…)