How to recycle your junk cell phone

Congratulations! You’ve got your new cell phone now. But what are you going to do with your old cell phone? Don’t throw it out! Aside from the fact that cell phones contain toxic parts that can leak into landfills, you can actually get money from your cellular junk.

There are lots of ideas on how to recycle your used cell phones. Here are some ways on how to recycle it. Some people send out their phones to those who are really in need. take for instance, the battered women’s shelters. Sometimes they redistribute them in developing countries wherein cellular phones are often the only means of making long distance calls. On the other hand, other people overhaul the old thing and resell it, or sometimes they take them apart for their component parts.

Talking about overhauling and reselling, one such organization is Cell Phone Trade-Ins. They are the ones who will tell you if your aging cell phone will either be put to good working condition again or it will be subject for disposal. Furthermore, they also pay the cost of shipping and handling and send back a check immediately upon receipt.

There are also some large charities, such as the Special Olympics that work with these kinds of organizations to run their own cell phone recycling and fundraising.
The average life of a cell phone is only 18 months. In some estimates there are 150 million cell phones that are being replaced every year.

Now if you are planning to replace your cell phone, you may donate it or sell it to one of the many sites that collects used cell phones and put your old junk to good use.

The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA) runs a website called www.recyclewirelessphones.org that lists programs organized by the association’s member companies. From their program list, you will see some physical locations where you can drop off your unused cell phones and others will send you a mailing label so you can simply drop your phone into the mail.

A quick search on the Internet can give you a wide variety of other cash and charity programs such as:
• http://www.wirefly.org
• http://cellphonetradeins.flipswap.com
• http://www.grcrecycling.com
• http://www.charitablerecycling.com
• http://www.collectivegood.com
• http://www.cellforcash.com
• http://www.call2recycle.org
• http://www.cashmyphone.com
• http://www.oldcellphone.com

If you are currently interested in turning your cell phone in for cash, making a donation, or even starting your own fund raising program, you may now start looking around to see which program offers the best deal for your phone or your cause. But don’t wait for so long. The sooner you send in your old cell phone the more it will be worth to you or to your chosen charity.

However, before you send in your cell phones or drop them off in a collection box bear in mind that it is your responsibility to:
1. Pay your balance in full and terminate your service.
2. Clear the cell phone’s memory of contacts and stored information.
3. Remove your phone’s SIM card.

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This entry was posted on Friday, July 27th, 2007 at 2:02 am and is filed under Mobile Phone. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.