Teach An Old Cell Phone New Tricks: What To Do With Your Old, Unused Cell Phones

Have an old cell phone (or three) that you don’t need and don’t know what to do with? Here are some safe, environmentally friendly ways to put your old phone to good use and keep it out of a landfill:

-Donate it. Mail your old phone to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. This organization uses the proceeds from selling refurbished cell phones to fund its programs, which include providing cell phones to victims of abuse so that they can call 911 in emergencies. If you mail your phone to Greenphone (the shipping is free, they provide a shipping label), they will repurpose it, or, if they must recycle it, will plant one tree for every phone recycled. Cell Phones For Soldiers sells the phones you donate to Recellular and uses the money to buy calling cards for soldiers overseas. Check in with Call2Recycle to see what programs they offer for you—and your workplace—to keep old batteries and cell phones out of landfills.

-Recycle/Repurpose it through the manufacturer or service provider. Most service providers and phone manufacturers how have programs for recycling and/or refurbishing and selling old cell phones. Check with your carrier or the company that made your phone to see what they can do for you. Some are teamed up with charities and nonprofit organizations.

-Sell it. If your phone is still functional, sell it to someone who can put it to use. The benefits here are obvious—your gets reused, you get paid, and if you sell it locally you probably won’t have to worry about shipping materials or costs.

According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, E-waste is increasing at a rate higher than any other category of municipal waste. Greenversations, the EPA’s official blog, states that the average cell phone is used for only about 1.5 years before it’s replaced. With companies competing to produce smarter, sleeker, more versatile cell phones and cell phone upgrades offered every couple of years upon contract renewal, many of us find ourselves replacing our phones more and more frequently. Add to this the fact that cell phones themselves are often not built to last longer than two years, and it’s no wonder that e-waste is on the rise. A startling statistic from Greenversations: “150 million cell phones are taken out of service each year, if Americans recycled just 2/3 of those cell phones, we could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 630,667 tons of CO2 and save enough energy to power more than 194,000 U.S. homes for a year.”