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.

Comments

Do Something about It For Free

[pgrote]

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.

Women's shelters

[jamesdood]

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.

Re:Women's shelters

[DoomHaven]

Nod, I know Motorola does this with donated old cell phones.

Used != useless

[Cialti]

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

Check Here for more Info

[Real World Stuff]

Collective Good has been recycling for years.
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:

• Turn that spare mobile phone into something useful for people in the developing world Help raise funds for a charity of your choice in the process
• 
  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!
  

Same as old computers...

[syrupMatt]

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:)

Don't throw it away! Donate it to charity!

[GuNgA-DiN]

You can donate your old phone to charity here:

http://www.wirelessfoundation.org/12give/index2.cf m

Donated Phones are Tax Deductible!

Re:Providers partly at fault

[SkOink]

My current provider said it was "not possible" to reprogram the phone to work on their network. He had no answer as to how the charities are able to reprogram them for battered women's shelters.

As sombody who used to sell cellular phones: Actually, the shelters don't need to reprogram the phone. Any cellphone in the 'states (not sure about other places) can call 911, regardless of provider, even without active service (as long as they have reception). So the all the shelters need to do is see that the phone gets a working battery, and distribute them.

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.