Recycle Your Cell Phone, Help Out the Sierra Club

In the U.S., consumers discard tens of millions of cell phones each year. Like computers, cell phones are a mix of incineration-toxic plastics and dump-water pollutants like mercury, cadmium, and arsenic. Governments struggling to develop computer-recycling programs often don’t accept cell phones and other small electronics. So in 2000 Seth Heine started a company, CollectiveGood, to recycle mobile electronics and resell the usable ones in the developing world. An environmentalist, Heine linked office-supply giant Staples with the Sierra Club, and a win-win charity recycling program was born.

All of the 1100-odd Staples outlets in the U.S. have clear deposit cylinders near their cell phone displays. People can deposit used cell phones, personal digital assistants, pagers, and their chargers for recycling. Staples then ships the electronics to CollectiveGood outside Atlanta, where they’re evaluated for usability. Then they’re either dismantled at an EPA-approved facility or refurbished and resold. Fifty percent of the proceeds go to the Sierra Club; Staples allocates the remainder to their environmental initiatives, says Owen Davis, a spokesperson for Staples.

It’s too early to project revenues for the program, which started in April 2003, says Johanna O’Kelley, director of licensing and membership marketing for the Club. The Club will evaluate the program after a year.

For information on the program, see www.collectivegood.com, or visit your local Staples store. For more information on cell phone waste, see www.informinc.org/wirelesswaste.php

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