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Discarded Cell Phones
psychictv points to a NYT story about discarded cell phones as an environmental hazard. The study mentioned in the article is available online. Every year or so we run a story on paper, disposable cell phones but even these would generate a fair amount of waste.
A group called Collective Good will take your cell phones and recycle them. Not only do developing nations get phones, but the people who refurbish them are trained. An interview with Seth Heine the founder of the group, explains a little more.
It's a way to give back that doesn't hurt you or cost you anything.
I know that at here you can donate to womens shelters for use as emergency 911 phones, they don't need to have service to call 911.
*narf!*
As the article mentions, there are a number of charities that will accept used cellphone donations. One of the largest is the "Donate a Phone CALL to PROTECT" program that Motorola runs (they accept any model of phone, not just Motorolas). Phones are either refurbished and then distributed to domestic violence victims, or sold, and the proceeds go to domestic violence prevention programs. More information is available at: http://www.wirelessfoundation.org/12give/index2.cf m
dunno about the rest of the country/world, but around here (Washington DC) you can drop your old cell phone off at many local police stations. the phones are then given to a group who recondition and reprogram them to dial only 911 (the emergency police number) and are given to women who are victims of domestic violence.
CollectiveGood is the mobile phone recycling resource. If you have a spare mobile phone sitting on a shelf or in a drawer, you can recycle it here in an environmentally and socially responsible manner. At CollectiveGood, you can:
Preserve the environment by keeping your used mobile phone out of a landfill, and by recycling it back into reuse
Be rewarded for your good deed with a thank you letter and tax-deduction for your in-kind donation to a charity
Think mobile phone recycling is a good idea? Share it!
If we don't fight for ourselves no one will.
There are already organizations that will safely recycle (or even better, refurbish for lower incomes) your old computers (http://www.accrc.org comes to mind for those in cali, us).
There are organizations which will also take your old cellphones. Earth911 (http://www.earth911.org) will use it as a free emergency phone, and the rbrc will take the batteries (http://www.rbrc.org/consumer/).
IMHO, the idea of sending these used cellphones to underprivleged nations doesn't wash, unless you are willing to include some infrastructure with them:)
"Moving through the masses like a fish through water." syrup
http://www.wirelessfoundation.org/12give/index2.cf m
Donated Phones are Tax Deductible!
Well not quite. A computer and a VCR aren't designed to transmit data wirelessly so there's stuff a cell phone has that a computer doesn't (I'm sure this stuff is pretty hazardous too, I would look it up but I don't feel like opening the PDF's now.) Besides, how many computer's did you buy last year? How many did you throw out? A cell phone you carry around, it gets lost, dropped, stolen, whatever, and you can't upgrade it. A computer you can keep for a long time, VCR even longer.
My sister had 3 cell phones last year (one was a pre paid phone she decided she didn't want anymore, another she dropped into a creek and had to buy a new one, the third one she still uses.) My parent's bought a cell phone in 1990, they stopped using it that same year because it was way to expensive (back then they weren't the cheapest things to own.) Now they have 2, people go through cell phones like they were handing them out on the street. Just the other day I saw an ad for a cell phone, you sign up for whatever amount of time and you get a free phone. Anyway, cell phone's are really cheap now, people get them replaced all the time just because they don't like the shape, color, whatever.
Something else you might not know is that these phones actually _do_ use different hardware inside. The transmitting circuits, as well as the digital antenna, are precisely tuned to the chunk of the CDMA band occupied by each phone's provider. These settings cannot be changed any more than you could 'reprogram' an FM radio to pick up shortwave.
---- I'll take you in a Hunt deathmatch any day.
I've worked as an engineer for cellular (an/dig/PCS/GSM etc.) providers for about 13 years now and stood around many a water cooler chatting with the marketing people.
They have two basic reasons for not wanting your old phone.
1. Sometimes, unbeknownst to you, the reason you had a crappy experience with your other service provider was the phone. This is not a profitable fact to advertise. It is more profitable to claim, "Yes, the other guys suck" and here's proof. You get a new phone and better reception and are convinced the other guys weren't as good, and you tell all your friends. The other problem is with letting you convert a possibly (but unlikely) bad phone is that the problem doesn't go away, and again, the user becomes aware that the old provider had just as good a service.
2. Most providers want to spend as little as possible on sales staff. This means a minimum of training. The simplest solution is to give them a box'o'phones, that all work alike, and train them for two or three different models. Better still is to preprogram the phone with numbers that are in the system, but "suspended." This way, without any knowledge of cell phones at all they can get you to sign a contract, take your money, call the customer care department to have the phone "unsuspended." And Voila! Sales without training.
Unless you change system types (Cell to PCS, PCS to GSM etc.) your phone would work just fine. GSM providers (T-Mobile, Cingular and the like) don't have this hassle since most of the programming is in the removable SIM. With those systems they will charge you a $10-$20 new sim fee and you can slip it into your old GSM phone and keep using all the headsets, batteries, chargers, covers and other stuff you purchased. That is assuming you can put up with their typically lousy rural coverage.
One thing you can do is donate your old cell phone. I believe battered women's shelters and/or the YWCA take old cell phones whose service has been cancelled. These organizations give the cell phones to woman who can use them if they need to call 911. 911 will still work on any cell phone, even if the service has been cancelled.
This is much better than throwing one away and it is tax deductable.