Jan 8 - U.S. EPA Launches Cell Phone Recycling Campaign

Today the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in partnership with eleven manufacturers, retailers and cell phone providers, introduced the "Recycle Your Cellphone. It's an Easy Call" public education campaign, aimed at getting consumers to recycle their unwanted phones. The campaign will mostly revovle around public service announcements on how easy it is for consumers to safety discard their unwanted phones for recycling for refurbishment. Claudia Deutsh of the New York Times reports.

By the [EPA's] reckoning, as many as 150 million cellphones are taken out of service each year. The phones contain metals, plastics, glass and chemicals, all of which require energy to mine and make, and many of which could be hazardous if they end up in landfills and leach into the ground. Moreover, many old cellphones still work and can be donated to charities or distributed to poor people.

Read complete article.

California already requires retailers to take back and recycle un-wanted phones through AB 2901 (Pavley), passed in 2004, and enacted in July 2006.

What You Can Do

  • Read more about the Cell Phone Takeback and Recycling Act.
  • Find a place to recycle your unwanted cell phones.
Lanh Nguyen