Buy, Sell and Donate used cell phones

02Feb08

I was previously talking about Nokia’s environmental strategy. One of the aspects I over looked was their recycling program.

In 2006, the CTIA-The Wireless Association® created a national recycling campaign the Wireless…The New RecyclableTM. In 2008, CTIA is now requesting the EPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) and other agencies to partner and create a new movement: Recycle Your Cell Phone. It’s An Easy Call. Logically, the goal of this campaign is to “increase public awareness of cell phone recycling and donation opportunities, with the ultimate goal of increasing the nation’s cell phone recycling rate”.

What can we do with wireless recycling? Most manufacturers and carriers propose a recycling program thanks to the CTIA initiative (such as Nokia, as seen in my previous article).

The following websites propose recycling and charity donations programs: Collective Good, Charitable Recycling, or GRC Wireless Recycling. But my favorite one is ReCellular. It was founded in 1991 and has, since then, partnered with the CTIA and the largest industry players to create a multi-program: ReCellular allows you to buy, sell and donate used cell phones.

Their purchasing and reselling programs are available for businesses only. Their donation program allows you to either create a donation program within your company or simply donate your phone / company phones to one of their partners. Here is the process.

First, as they say, you need to prepare your phone for recycling. I know this sounds maybe obvious for some of you, but just in case:

  1. “Terminate your service,
  2. Clear the phone’s memory of contacts and other stored personal information by utilizing the Cell Phone Data Eraser here,
  3. Remove your phone’s SIM card, if it has one. Phones that operate on GSM networks use SIM cards. If you are not sure if your phone uses a SIM card or if you need assistance removing your SIM card, contact your wireless provider”

Then just go here and look at the different charities ReCellular is partnering with. You can choose to donate your phone to the think-food organization, the Victory Junction Gang or many others. Once your choice is made (and again, there are other websites proposed above that will offer more organizations to donate to, so don’t feel restrained), just go to this page, enter your zip code, the program chosen and find the closest drop off location. If you don’t select any program, the search will just give you the 5 closest drop off programs.

Leaving the donation world, another national organization is RBRC and its Call2RecycleTM program. They will take any battery or cellphone and make recycling easy if you’d rather have your phone completely de-constructed and reborn in… a pretty orange traffic cone.

Cara also talks about Call2RecycleTM here in a more detailed manner ;)

I personally never had to recycle my phone. During my first year in New York, I lost my phone about 5 or 6 times. I had 1 Nokia 3220, 1 T-609 looking Samsung, followed by 4 T-809. My dad got me my first 809 so I just could not tell him I had lost it. I had to keep buying the same model… I still have it but now I am ready for a change. Can’t wait to recycle it!!


Filed under: Environment, Green, Let's make the world a cosier place, Mobile   |  
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4 Responses to “Buy, Sell and Donate used cell phones”  

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  1. 1 Dwight Zahringer on February 2, 2008 said:

    Great article to talk about a great cause however please remember to let your readers know that those programs are all FOR PROFIT. While YES they do help charities they are regular corporations making money. I run a similar organization called Recycling for Charities that is a 501c3 non-profit organization. While smaller in scale we offer the same types of donation programs for other groups - large to small, schools and individuals as well. All donations too are tax deductible. Donations are automated online at recyclingforcharities.com

    Thanks!

    Dwight

  2. 2 Marine Boudeau on February 3, 2008 said:

    Thank you for mentioning your organization. I am glad you could share that information.

  3. 3 Céline on February 5, 2008 said:

    For more information, you can also check out the website secret-life.org and watch the video The Secret Life of Cell Phones.

  4. 4 monstercellular on June 6, 2008 said:

    The best I have found is cellularchallenge.net . They clear your personal data (pictures, numbers, text messages) and you can print postage directly from their site and just drop it in the mail It’s easy and they accept our older phones as well and give them to a good cause and keep the material out of the landfill.

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