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

When the Hunting Park Christian Academy asked students and parents to turn in old cellular phones and used inkjet cartridges, the Philadelphia school became one of more than 20,000 organizations that have raised money through recycling programs sponsored by the Dallas-based company EcoPhones. The school earned about $500 last year through the program and continues to benefit from collection boxes at local churches.

“I’m sold on the program,” said Gabriel Wang-Herrera, a former kindergarten teacher who is now the school’s director of development. He said EcoPhones sent him everything he needed to advertise the program and paid for shipping the collected devices.

It seems like a win-win: The recycling programs not only help keep old phones, inkjet cartridges and other electronic devices out of U.S. landfills but also raise funds for schools, churches and community groups.

But charity watchdogs caution that there are potential downsides: Most of the money ends up in the hands of middlemen who resell the devices. And these for-profit companies — including EcoPhones, Phoneraiser, FundingFactory, CollectiveGood, Think Recycle, ReCellular, Cellular Funds and Project KOPEG (Keep Our Planet Earth Green) — are rapidly proliferating, perhaps at the expense of similar nonprofits.

What’s more, U.S. “recycling” programs may end up exporting hazardous waste problems to developing nations ill equipped to deal with them, they say.

Average cell phone lifespan: 18 months
The average American gets a new cell phone every 18 months. The phone that’s replaced is typically in perfect working order but is often simply tossed in a drawer or the garbage can. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that 98 million U.S. cell phones were discarded in 2005, along with hundreds of millions of other electronic products such as computers, TVs and VCRs. Fewer than 20 percent of cell phones were recycled. Many ended up in landfills, where they can release nasty acids and toxic metals.

Consumers who don’t want their phones to end up at the dump have several options: They can return the device to its manufacturer, take it to a recycling center, donate it to a nonprofit or turn it in for cash through one of the many for-profit collection programs. Some of these programs accept phones from individuals, while others work only with groups conducting fundraisers.

Most of the collection companies operate the same way: They provide materials to help the fundraising organization collect phones or other devices and then pay the organization for items that are shipped to them. Some companies are expanding beyond cell phones. For example, EcoPhones now buys used laptops, MP3 music players, digital cameras, handheld GPS devices and DVD movies.

The amount paid to the organization depends on the condition and model number of each device collected. For example, EcoPhones pays as little as 25 cents for some phones, and as much as $300 for others. The average payment is around $3, said Jennifer Parra, a spokesperson for the company.

About 30 percent of the phones shipped to EcoPhones are obsolete, Parra said. They are sent to reclamation plants where precious metals such as gold are extracted, and plastics are melted down for recycling.

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