Cell phone recycling for cash a win-win, or is it?

Many recycled phones thrown away
The remaining 70 percent of the phones are sold to refurbishing companies, which restore the phones to working order and in turn sell them to retailers. About three-quarters of the refurbished phones end up in Latin America, where they are usually marketed as prepaid (“pay-as-you-go”) phones.

Wang-Herrera said he chose EcoPhones over competitors because of the company’s competitive pricing. Also, he said EcoPhones is “very user-friendly” and responds quickly to e-mailed inquiries.

Some others aren’t so happy with the company. Last year Adam Kalsey, a Cubmaster and blogger in Gold River, Calif., accused EcoPhones of “spamming” Boy Scout leaders whose e-mail addresses are listed on local packs’ Web sites. Parra acknowledged that EcoPhones sends marketing messages to teachers, pastors and others affiliated with schools, churches and community groups, but she said the company gives all recipients a chance to opt out of its mailing list as required by the federal CAN-SPAM Act.

Perhaps a greater concern about recyclers is what happens to the phones they collect. Many end up in developing countries that lack recycling facilities, well-designed landfills or environmental guidelines for the safe handling of hazardous materials, making it highly unlikely that the phones will be safely recycled or properly disposed of. The electronic waste problem has simply been transferred to another time and place, all without violating any international restrictions on the shipment of hazardous waste.

‘Not a particularly philanthropic act’
Some refurbished phones are sold in the U.S. market, which is clearly preferable to burial in the best of landfills. Even so, donors shouldn’t give themselves much credit for parting with a used phone, said Trent Stamp, president of Charity Navigator, a New Jersey watchdog organization that evaluates the financial accountability of charitable organizations.

Donating a phone to a fundraiser is “not a particularly philanthropic act,” Stamp said. As with used-car and clothing donation programs, it’s simply a convenient way to dump your junk, and the charity receives only a small portion of the money changing hands, as the middlemen pocket most of the cash. “The best you can hope for is that a couple of pennies on the back end actually reach your donation organization,” he said.

How can you make sure that your local group receives the most benefit from its fundraising program? Here are a few tips:

• Seek out partners that are nonprofit organizations rather than for-profit collection companies.
• Donate only to organizations or companies that have strict “no-landfill” policies guaranteeing that all items collected will be recycled or resold.
• Look for programs that accept all cell phones regardless of age or condition, rather than those that seek only newer, high-end phones.
• Don’t be fooled by advertising that promises high prices. Usually these prices only apply to a few phone models that are rarely if ever collected.
• Choose a program that offers free shipping.

And if you really want to make a difference, consider purchasing a refurbished phone yourself. Service providers such as AT&T and Verizon offer “just like new” phones online, as do many smaller companies. Re-use is a much more efficient way to curtail waste than recycling.

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