All Cell Phones” · and other functions may make cell phones heavier, further increasing the total tonnage of waste generat-ed by these products. Toxicity of Cell Phone Waste As

Strategies for a better environment

“Calling

All

Cell

Phones...”

Collection, Reuse, and Recycling

Programs in the US

INFORM, Inc.120 Wall StreetNew York, NY 10005-4001

Tel 212 361-2400Fax 212 361-2412Site www.informinc.org

Gina Goldstein, Director of PublicationsEmily Robbins, Production Editor

© 2003 by INFORM. All rights reservedPrinted in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Most, Eric.Where will all our cell phones go? : an analysis of collection, reuse,

and recycling programs in the US / Eric Most.p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.1. Cellular telephones--Recycling--United States. 2. Waste electronic

apparatus and appliances--United States--Management. I. Title.TD799.85.M67 2003363.72'82--dc22

2003022611

INFORM, Inc., is a national non-profit organization that identifies practical ways of living and doing busi-ness that are environmentally sustainable. INFORM is supported by individual, foundation, government,and corporate contributions, and by book sales. All contributions are tax-deductible.

Calling All Cell Phones:Collection, Reuse, and Recycling Programs

in the US

Eric Most

©2003

Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.............................................................................................................................i

INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................................1

Toxicity of Cell Phone Waste .......................................................................................................................2Cell Phone Collection and Reuse Programs: A Potential Solution?.............................................................3Methodology .................................................................................................................................................3

FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ......................................................................................5

1 Cell Phone Collection Programs in the US ..............................................................10Wireless Foundation/Donate a Phone .........................................................................................................10Motorola/Call to Protect..............................................................................................................................11Sprint/Sprint Project Connect .....................................................................................................................12The Body Shop/National Cell Phone Collection Program .........................................................................13RadioShack .................................................................................................................................................14Verizon Wireless/HopeLine Program .........................................................................................................15CollectiveGood International ......................................................................................................................16Charitable Recycling Program....................................................................................................................17

2 Collection Methods and Program Promotion ......................................................19Collection Methods .....................................................................................................................................19Collection Incentives...................................................................................................................................22Promotion of Collection Programs .............................................................................................................23

3 Program Revenues, Expenses, and Charitable Donations...........................27Revenues from the Sale of Refurbished Phones and Recyclable Materials...............................................27Collection Program Expenses .....................................................................................................................29Charitable Donations...................................................................................................................................29

4 Refurbishment and Recycling of Used Cell Phones ..........................................31Refurbishing Cell Phones ...........................................................................................................................31Impediments to Refurbishing and How They Can Be Overcome..............................................................32Recycling Cell Phones ................................................................................................................................33The Market for Recycled Materials ............................................................................................................34Reusing and Recycling Batteries ................................................................................................................34Impediments to Recycling and How They Can Be Overcome...................................................................35

5 Destination of Refurbished Cell Phones and Recyclable Materials ......36Refurbished Cell Phones Sold Abroad .......................................................................................................36What Happens to Refurbished Cell Phones That Are Sold Abroad? .........................................................37Refurbished Cell Phones Donated Within the US......................................................................................38Cell Phones Sold for Recycling: The Potential for Overseas Dumping.....................................................38

6 Increasing Cell Phone Recovery and Improving the Programs ...............39Increasing Collection Program Participation ..............................................................................................39Reducing Program Expenses ......................................................................................................................41Policy Options.............................................................................................................................................41Product Redesign: Removing Impediments to Refurbishment and Recycling ..........................................42Creating a Recovery and Disposal Infrastructure Abroad ..........................................................................43

ADDENDUM: AT&T Wireless Reuse and Recycle ..............................................................................44

NOTES ................................................................................................................................................................45

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments • i

I am grateful to the many people interviewed for this report, including representatives of the individual cellphone collection programs, cell phone recyclers and refurbishers, and other industry contacts who took the timeto answer my questions, review initial drafts of the report, and provide valuable comments.

I would especially like to thank Bette Fishbein, who generated the first spark of interest in the problem of cellphone waste with the publication of Waste in the Wireless World: The Challenge of Cell Phones in 2002. Withouther innovative research and valuable insights, this report would not have been possible.

A particular note of appreciation is due to Gina Goldstein, INFORM’s publications director, for her many sub-stantive contributions. I would also like to thank Emily Robbins for the design and layout of this report andINFORM’s president Joanna Underwood for her suggestions and support.

Finally, thanks to the US Environmental Protection Agency, Region II, which provided valuable input on thereport’s content and on initial drafts, and whose financial support made this project possible. However, thisreport does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the EPA.

— Eric MostINFORM, Inc.

Introduction • 1

This new INFORM report is the second of twoINFORM studies of cell phone waste. The firstreport, Waste in the Wireless World: The Challenge ofCell Phones, released in 2002, was a groundbreakinginvestigation of the rapidly growing, highly toxicwaste stream generated by these products — over 1billion of which are currently in use worldwide. Itexamined the efforts under way to address this wastechallenge in the US and abroad and identified twoarenas for action: (1) development of programs thatkeep used phones out of the waste stream by collect-ing them for reuse and recycling, and (2) redesign ofcell phones and their accessories to facilitate reuseand recycling and eliminate or reduce the chemicalscontained in these products.

While advances in sustainable cell phone design havebeen minimal since the release of Waste in theWireless World, refurbishment and recycling pro-grams have emerged as the main response to cellphone waste in the US.

Calling All Cell Phones: Collection, Reuse, andRecycling Programs in the US provides the first in-depth assessment of some of the key collection andreuse programs in this country. While these still newprograms mark a step in the right direction, theirimpact on cell phone waste has so far been negligi-ble. This report identifies the likely reasons for theirminimal impact and makes specific recommenda-tions to significantly improve their effectiveness. Italso describes how manufacturers and governmentcan help such programs tackle the cell phone wastechallenge both at home and abroad.

Since the publication of Waste in the Wireless World,cell phone waste has become an issue of worldwideconcern, and international efforts are being initiatedto address it. Of particular significance was thelaunching in December 2002 by the internationalBasel Convention (which addresses the transbound-ary shipment of hazardous waste) of the Initiative fora Sustainable Partnership on Environmentally SoundManagement of End-of-Life Mobile Phones, whichaims to promote redesign of cell phones and to iden-

tify the best practices for their refurbishment, recy-cling, and safe disposal.

In the US, cell phone subscriptions have skyrocketedover the past 18 years, from 340,000 in 1985 to morethan 140 million at the beginning of 2003 (see table).By 2005, INFORM’s research indicates that US cellphone use will reach approximately 175 million.Meanwhile, the waste from these products is growingrapidly: by 2005, over 100 million cell phones will beretired annually in the US alone, over 25 times morethan in 1990, when subscriptions in this countrynumbered 5.3 million.1 Many of these phones will bestored away in closets and drawers before beingthrown out in the trash, but eventually — if currenttrends continue — they will wind up in landfills andincinerators along with other municipal waste.According to INFORM’s estimates, a total of about

Introduction

Year Number of Subscribers

(millions)

1985 0.34

1990 5.3

1991 7.6

1992 11.0

1993 16.0

1994 24.1

1995 33.8

1996 44.0

1997 55.3

1998 69.2

1999 86.0

2000 109.5

2001 128.7

2002 140.8

Source: Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association,“CTIA’s Semi-Annual Wireless Industry Survey Results, June1985-December 2002,” 2003, http://www.wow-com.com/images/survey/2003/752x571/SEMI-Annual_Table_Part_2_Slide_2.gif.

US Cell Phone Subscribers, 1985-2002

500 million used cell phones weighing over 250,000tons will be stockpiled and awaiting disposal by 2005.2

These waste amounts may seem large, but they areconservative estimates. The rate of increase in cellphone subscriptions has declined in recent years, butthere is some indication that a trend in the oppositedirection may be about to occur. According to datafrom the Cellular Telecommunications & InternetAssociation, growth in US cell phone subscriptionsdeclined from approximately 27 percent in 2000 to9.4 percent in 2002; the number of new subscriptionsin the first six months of 2003, however, suggeststhat this rate of growth could rise to 10 percent for theyear.3 Moreover, changing technology may cause theaverage cell phone’s life span — now about 18months4 — to shrink further. Phones with color dis-plays are beginning to become available outside ofJapan, and monochrome phones could be jettisonedin large numbers if a wholesale migration to coloroccurs in the US and Europe. Similarly, many con-sumers may choose to discard their older phones infavor of “smart” phones with Internet, e-mail, calen-dar, and other capabilities, to say nothing of phoneswith photo, video, and music functions.

Because they are so small and lightweight, cellphones generate only a negligible quantity of wasteper unit. However, their small size — the averagephone weighs less than a pound — also makes themmore likely to be thrown out in the trash. Cell phoneshave become progressively smaller over the years,but this could change. As phones acquire more andmore features, larger screens may be needed andoverall size may increase — though not enough todeter users from discarding used phones with the restof their household waste. Likewise, Internet accessand other functions may make cell phones heavier,further increasing the total tonnage of waste generat-ed by these products.

Toxicity of Cell Phone Waste

As described in detail in Waste in the Wireless World,cell phones (and other electronic devices) are anespecially problematic component of the wastestream because they contain a large number of haz-ardous substances, which can pollute the air whenburned in incinerators and leach into soil and drink-

ing water when buried in landfills. Many of thesetoxic substances — including antimony, arsenic,beryllium, cadmium, copper, lead, nickel, and zinc— belong to a class of chemicals known as persistenttoxins, which linger in the environment for long peri-ods without breaking down. Some of them — includ-ing the metals lead and cadmium — also tend toaccumulate in the tissues of plants and animals,building up in the food chain to dangerous levelseven when released in very small quantities. Thesepersistent, bioaccumulative toxins, or PBTS, havebeen associated with cancer and a range of reproduc-tive, neurological, and developmental disorders.They pose a particular threat to children, whosedeveloping systems are especially vulnerable to toxicassault. Most of the persistent toxins and PBTs con-tained in cell phones are in the printed wiring boardand liquid-crystal display.

The PBT of greatest concern in cell phones is lead, aheavy metal recognized as a problem materialthroughout the world. Lead is a suspected carcino-gen, has adverse effects on the central nervous sys-tem, immune system, and kidneys, and has beenlinked to developmental abnormalities. Its mainapplication in cell phones and other electronic prod-ucts is in the solder used to attach components toeach other and to the printed wiring board. Within theEuropean Union (EU), the Directive on theRestriction of the Use of Certain HazardousSubstances in Electrical and Electronic Products(RoHS Directive) mandates that, by July 1, 2006, nonew electrical and electronic products put on themarket in any of the EU’s 15 member states may con-tain lead (among a handful of other particularly haz-ardous substances). Numerous efforts are under wayto find alternatives to lead solder that do not compro-mise the performance of electronic products. (Formore information on the RoHS Directive, seeINFORM’s fact sheet “The WEEE and RoHSDirectives: Highlights and Analysis,” July 2003,http://www.informinc.org/fact_WEEE.pdf.)

Another hazardous constituent of cell phones isbrominated flame retardants, which are added to plas-tics to reduce the risk of fire. They are used primarilyin the phones’ printed wiring boards, cables, and plas-tic housings. Research indicates that some brominat-ed flame retardants can be persistent, bioaccumula-tive, and toxic, while the impacts of others are stillbeing evaluated. Two categories of flame retardant —

2 • Calling All Cell Phones: Collection, Reuse, and Recycling Programs in the US

polybrominated biphenyls (PBBs) and polybrominat-ed diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) — have been associatedwith cancer and disruption of the immune andendocrine systems. In addition, some of these sub-stances can form dioxins and furans, a group of highlytoxic and persistent by-products of combustion, whenproducts that contain them are incinerated or recy-cled. Like lead, the use of PBBs and PBDEs in elec-trical and electronic products sold in the EU is bannedunder the RoHS Directive beginning in July 2006.

The rechargeable batteries that power cell phonesalso contain a number of highly toxic substances.Through the mid-1990s, the most commonly usedpower source in cell phones was nickel-cadmiumbatteries (Ni-Cds). Cadmium is a PBT and probablehuman carcinogen that can cause lung, liver, and kid-ney damage and is toxic to wildlife. Because of itstoxicity, cadmium is banned from electronic productsunder the EU’s RoHS Directive. Lithium-ion andnickel-metal hydride batteries are increasinglyreplacing Ni-Cds in cell phones, but these containcobalt, zinc, and copper — all heavy metals that canbe toxic to plants, wildlife, and human beings.Although a system is in place — the RechargeableBattery Recycling Corp. (RBRC) — to collect andrecycle rechargeable batteries in the US, few con-sumers are aware of the program and most of thesebatteries wind up in the trash. (It is important to notethat recycling is not a panacea and can have its ownenvironmental impacts, including the release of toxicchemicals into air, surface water, and public sewagesystems as a result of the recycling process.)

Cell Phone Collection andReuse Programs: A Potential Solution?

Cell phone collection programs of various sizes andtypes have been springing up around the country overthe last several years and continue to do so. Such pro-grams recover used phones from consumers andeither refurbish and resell or recycle them, dependingon their condition. By refurbishing used phones, suchprograms extend the lifetime of these products anddivert them — along with the many toxic substancesthey contain — from landfills and incinerators, atleast temporarily. Similarly, recycling keeps discard-ed phones out of disposal facilities and reduces the

need for raw materials used to make new products.

Since collection programs are one of the mainoptions for reducing cell phone waste, INFORMundertook an assessment of four cell phone collec-tion programs now under way in the US:

1. The Donate a Phone family of programs, foundedby the Wireless Foundation and comprising —• Call to Protect, run by Motorola and several

other program partners• Sprint Project Connect, run by Sprint • The National Cell Phone Collection Program,

run by The Body Shop• RadioShack’s collection campaigns

2. The HopeLine Program, run by Verizon Wireless

3. CollectiveGood International

4. The Charitable Recycling Program.

This report describes and evaluates the methods theseprograms employ to recover used phones andexplores the degree to which they ensure that refur-bished phones are managed responsibly at their endof life and that recycled materials are processed andultimately disposed of in ways that protect the envi-ronment and human health. It provides INFORM’sconclusions and a summary of ways to improve pro-gram effectiveness.

Methodology

INFORM included the Wireless Foundation’s Donatea Phone program and Verizon Wireless’ HopeLineprogram in its research for this report because theyare the largest programs currently under way in theUS.* In addition to their reputation for recovering thelargest numbers of used cell phones, these programshave received considerable attention from the media,as have CollectiveGood and Charitable Recycling,two smaller programs that we also studied. These pro-grams, unlike Donate a Phone and HopeLine, are notaffiliated with the wireless industry; they are also dis-tinctive in several ways that make them trendsettersin the cell phone collection arena.

Introduction • 3

* AT&T Wireless expanded its cell phone recovery and reuse pro-gram in April 2003, after research for this report was complete. Formore information, see the addendum at the end of this publication.

INFORM’s research for this report consisted of pre-liminary and follow-up interviews with program rep-resentatives regarding the following topics:

• Quantity of cell phones collected

• Number of cell phones refurbished/resold versusthe number recycled

• The methods used to collect used cell phones

• Program expenses

• Program revenues from the sale of refurbishedphones and recycled materials

• Program promotion and advertising

• Incentives to encourage consumer participation inthe program

• What determines whether phones are recycled orrefurbished

• The refurbishment and recycling processes used

• The ultimate destination of refurbished phones.

In addition, INFORM conducted interviews withthird parties affiliated with the collection programs,such as cell phone refurbishers, cell phone distribu-tors, cell phone and battery recyclers, and charitablepartners and beneficiaries. We also examined phonedrop-off mechanisms at retail collection sites andquestioned store employees regarding these pro-grams. Finally, we assessed collection program web-sites and contacted the programs by phone to ques-tion representatives about their programs.

In preparing this report, INFORM evaluated how effec-tively the various programs are collecting used cellphones and addressing the toxic wireless waste stream.We believe that the findings of this new study will beof value to a wide variety of audiences. They will:

• Give the cell phone collection programs them-selves an independent view of the limited overallrole they are currently playing in addressing cellphone waste, and provide suggestions on howthey can build on their important initiatives.

• Show large institutions, including major business-es, government agencies, and schools, how theycan, with relative ease, contribute to reducing thecell phone waste stream by collecting usedphones for reuse and recycling.

• Make environmental, health, and safety regula-tors and legislators aware of the marginal impact

of cell phone collection and reuse programs todate and the public policies and programs theycan implement to improve rates of cell phone col-lection and reuse.

• Make consumers aware, no matter where theylive in the US, that cell phone reuse and recyclingprograms, limited as they are, nonetheless pro-vide an alternative to throwing their used phonesout with the trash.

• Create an impetus for those at the source of theproblem of cell phone waste — cell phone manu-facturers — to move forward with programs toredesign cell phones and their accessories in waysthat make them less toxic, more refurbishable,and more recyclable, and make them fully awareof international initiatives that may makeredesign essential for competing successfully inthe global marketplace.


Findings

Recovering used cell phones and either refurbishingthem for reuse or recycling them are criticallyimportant because of the growing quantity of wastegenerated by these products and the many hazardoussubstances they contain (including a number of per-sistent, bioaccumulative toxins, or PBTS). Whilemany retired cell phones get stored away in closetsand drawers, virtually all of them — if present trendscontinue — will eventually wind up in disposalfacilities, where their combustion in incinerators andburial in landfills pose risks to the environment andpublic health. The following are the main findings ofthis report.

1. The four cell phone collection programs exam-ined by INFORM — which include thenation’s two largest programs, run by thewireless industry, and two smaller, independ-ent programs — collected approximately 2.5million phones from 1999 through early 2003.

• These programs refurbish and resell the vastmajority of phones they collect, with a smallernumber — about 40,000 between 1999 and2003 — being donated to individuals (such asvictims of domestic violence) or sold to recy-clers. Every cell phone collected and eitherrefurbished or recycled means fewer of theseproducts flowing into landfills and incineratorsin the US.

• The cell phone collection programs examinedfor this report recover used phones by fourprincipal means. These include (1) permanentcollections at retail stores; (2) short- or long-term drives held at retail stores or in partner-ship with government agencies, businesses,schools, and other organizations; (3) collec-tions at football games and other sportsevents; and (4) direct shipment by donors tothe program’s headquarters or refurbishing/recycling facility.

2. Collecting, refurbishing, and reselling used cellphones have generated millions of dollars inrevenues from the sale of refurbished phonesand recyclable materials. Most of this money— over $6.5 million since 1999 — is beingdonated to charity.

• Donate a Phone, the largest cell phone collec-tion program in the US, has raised about $5 mil-lion in revenues for charitable purposes since1999. This represents approximately two-thirdsof the program’s total income.

• Verizon’s HopeLine program raised approxi-mately $1.4 million from the sale of usedphones from October 2001 through the end of2002. Approximately 75 percent of this amountwas used for charitable purposes.

• CollectiveGood and Charitable Recycling —for-profit programs that have collected muchsmaller numbers of used phones — have alsodonated a “significant portion” of their pro-ceeds from phone sales to charity. In the case ofCollectiveGood, charitable donations were saidto account for over one-half of the program’sincome.*

• ReCellular, Inc., a leading refurbisher of usedcell phones, generates $25 to $30 million inannual revenues from the sale of refurbishedphones and recyclable materials from allsources. This for-profit business coordinatesthe refurbishment and recycling of usedphones collected through the WirelessFoundation’s Donate a Phone family of pro-grams and Verizon’s HopeLine program, but itobtains used phones from many other sourcesas well, including purchases from wireless car-riers and retailers.

Findings and Recommendations • 5

Findings and Recommendations

* Unlike CollectiveGood (and most other collection programs),Charitable Recycling does not make donations based on the resalevalue of the phones it collects, and it has not estimated its dollarsdonated as a percentage of phone sale revenues.

3. The 2.5 million cell phones so far recovered bythe programs studied for this report accountfor less than 1 percent of the millions of phonesretired and discarded each year, and have hadonly a negligible impact on this waste stream.

• Collecting, refurbishing, and recycling usedcell phones have barely made a dent in theproblem of cell phone waste. Although 2.5million cell phones have been collected by theprograms examined by INFORM since 1999,hundreds of millions of cell phones have beenretired during this same period that have notbeen recovered by these or any other collec-tion programs.

• The collection programs are not publicizedsufficiently to achieve major national impact.INFORM’s research indicates that most con-sumers are not aware of the existence of thecollection programs currently available in theUS. Promotion and advertising occur mostly atthe local level, and the wireless industry(which runs the two largest programs) has nottaken full advantage of the resources at its dis-posal to promote the programs and educate thepublic about the importance of cell phonerecovery and reuse. Still, the WirelessFoundation’s Donate a Phone program andVerizon’s HopeLine program have reaped thebenefits of comparatively greater exposure byrecovering much larger numbers of phonesthan CollectiveGood or Charitable Recycling.

• Cell phone collection sites are not located toencourage wide-scale public participation.Although consumer convenience is essential tohigh rates of cell phone recovery, permanentcollection sites at high-traffic locations within acommunity are not widely available. The mostsuccessful programs are those that collect usedphones at drop-off sites in retail stores, especial-ly those that sell wireless products. Verizon, forexample, has been able to collect relatively largenumbers of phones — approximately 500,000 in2002 alone — because consumers can dropthem off anytime at any of the company’s 1200-plus retail stores. Phone drives at schools, shop-ping malls, and public events such as footballgames can bring in a lot of phones in a shortperiod — Motorola collected 5000 units for Callto Protect (a Donate a Phone program) at a sin-

gle NFL game in Tennessee — but such collec-tions are not available on an ongoing basis.

• The collection programs offer few financialincentives to motivate people who might nototherwise be inclined to donate their usedphones. Rebates and discounts on new productsin exchange for a used phone have proveneffective but are offered rarely or not at all. Thefew times Verizon employed this strategy, dis-tributing coupons that entitled cell phonedonors to $5 off the price of a new phone oraccessory, the result was a 15 to 20 percentincrease in the number of phones collected.Prepaid shipping labels can also help, butCollectiveGood is currently the only programthat offers free shipping for all donations fromindividuals, including donations of only a sin-gle phone.

4. Over two-thirds of refurbished cell phones windup abroad — often in developing countries —where there is little or no infrastructure in placeto manage these products responsibly afterusers discard them. Large numbers of cellphones are also being shipped overseas for recy-cling. However, none of the collection programsis taking responsibility for the reuse, recycling,and disposal of the phones they export.

• The largest market for refurbished phones isLatin America, although many are also sold inAfrica, Asia, and Eastern Europe. These phonesare generally older or outmoded models forwhich there is greater demand outside the US.

• Because they do not take responsibility for thephones they collect that are refurbished andsold for export, existing programs are providingonly a temporary solution to the problem of cellphone waste by shifting the disposal problemabroad. Exported phones avoid being landfilledor incinerated in the US, but they will still endup joining the waste stream unless reuse andrecycling systems are available in the countrieswhere they are sold.

• According to one recent report, 50 to 80 percentof the electronic waste collected for recyclingin the US is exported to Asia, where investiga-tors at some disposal and recycling facilitiesfound unrestricted dumping and workersexposed to high levels of toxic chemicals.1


While there is no evidence that any existing col-lection program is working with recyclers thatsend used cell phones to such places, the ulti-mate destination of these materials cannot bedetermined, because shipments are not trackedalong the often complicated course of their pur-chase and subsequent resale to processors andother buyers.

5. Cell phone refurbishers and recyclers wouldgenerate higher revenues, and would likelyincrease their recovery rates, if phones werecheaper and easier to refurbish and recycle.However, since cell phone manufacturers bearnone of the costs of refurbishment and recy-cling, they have little incentive to come up withdesigns that facilitate these processes.

• Cell phone refurbishers and recyclers inter-viewed by INFORM cited a number of design-related impediments to refurbishment and recy-cling that compromise efficiency and increaseprogram costs. Disassembly can be time-con-suming, parts can be expensive and difficult toreplace, accessories can be hard to find, andmodifying the internal software can be compli-cated. Some of these problems are common toall cell phones while others are specific to cer-tain makes and models. They all make refur-bishment more difficult and costly.

• Most cell phone metals can be recovered andsold, but there is little market for the plastics,which are mostly burned off during smelting.The typical phone contains a variety of plastics,which cannot be separated cost-effectively.Recycling is also hindered by the presence oftoxic contaminants such as brominated flameretardants and beryllium. Since plastics makeup 40 percent of a cell phone’s contents, thefailure to reuse them represents a significantwaste of materials.

Recommendations

To effectively address the problem of cell phonewaste, the programs that collect, refurbish, and recy-cle used cell phones must be of a scale commensuratewith the scope of the problem. Today’s programs willnot be able to prevent a massive legacy of persistenttoxic waste and contamination from cell phonesunless they are dramatically expanded and improved.The following recommendations aim to enable col-lection programs to fulfill their potential throughboth internal change and cooperative action by man-ufacturers and public policy makers.

1. New and existing collection programs mustimprove cell phone recovery rates by conduct-ing more aggressive promotional and advertis-ing efforts, providing widespread, convenient-ly located, and permanent phone drop-offsites, and offering financial incentives for con-sumers to donate their used phones.

• To increase participation, wireless providersand the cell phone collection programs them-selves need to do more to spread the word aboutthe importance of cell phone reuse and recy-cling. National and regional advertising cam-paigns and expanded media coverage wouldincrease public awareness of the programs andhighlight their value. Collections at retail out-lets could be promoted more aggressivelyinside the store, wireless providers could publi-cize the programs in ads for their service plans,and collection information could be includedwith new phones and phone bills.

• Collection programs should make it more con-venient for consumers to donate their usedphones by establishing permanent drop-off sitesat a variety of high-traffic locations within acommunity, such as shopping malls, supermar-kets, banks, and post offices. Converting tem-porary drives to permanent collection systemswould also help. This is especially true in thecase of RadioShack (a Donate a Phone programpartner), which has about 7100 stores nation-wide and could recover much larger numbers ofphones if its collection drives were ongoing.

• To motivate more people to donate theirphones, program participants with retail outlets


should offer discounts and rebates on theirproducts to customers bringing in phones. Inthe case of programs that recover significantnumbers of phones through direct donations,participation could be increased by providingfree shipping in all cases, regardless of quantity.

2. Collection programs should ensure that refur-bished phones sold abroad are managedresponsibly after users discard them, and thatphones sent abroad for recycling are processedand ultimately disposed of in a manner thatprotects public health and the environment.

• Phones sent abroad should be returned to theUS for reuse and recycling, or systems need tobe established that enable these phones to becollected, reused, and recycled abroad. Both ofthese options present significant challengesrequiring the cooperation of all interested par-ties, including the wireless industry, thoseinvolved in refurbishing, recycling, andreselling phones, and the collection programsthemselves. Establishing an overseas recoveryinfrastructure would advance one of the goalsof the 1989 Basel Convention, which is to pre-vent the dumping of hazardous materials indeveloping countries. Revenues generated fromthe sale of refurbished phones and recyclablematerials could be used to cover the costs ofthis infrastructure.

• To ensure responsible recycling and disposalpractices, phones sent abroad should be trackedat every point where they change hands. Thecollection programs can require verification ofthe ultimate destination of all product ship-ments, as well as certificates of destruction/con-sumption for all shipments processed.

3. Cell phone manufacturers can alleviate imped-iments to cost-effective refurbishment andrecycling by making relatively simple changesin cell phone design and manufacturing,which would in turn increase the profitabilityof programs that collect, refurbish, and resellused phones.

• More durable designs that are easier to disas-semble would reduce the time, labor, and costsinvolved in refurbishing used cell phones.

Phones with fewer breakable parts (such as flippanels and external antennae) or with parts thatcan be easily snapped on and off are easier andless costly to take apart and refurbish.

• Standardized components would allow forinterchangeability among different makes andmodels of phone. When a phone can use manytypes of battery, adapter, or other accessory,finding a replacement can be done more quick-ly and easily.

• Simplified internal software would expediterefurbishing. Resetting a phone’s internal soft-ware is one of the most time-consuming anddifficult parts of the refurbishing process.

• Reducing the toxic constituents of cell phoneswould make them more recyclable. Cell phonesmanufactured with alternatives to brominatedflame retardants and beryllium-copper wouldreduce contamination problems and improveworker safety.

• Standardizing and labeling plastics and batter-ies would facilitate both refurbishment andrecycling. Since different brands of cell phonecontain different plastics and battery types, thiswould make sorting and replacing them morecost-efficient.

4. Policy initiatives at both the federal and statelevels can play a vital role in stimulating moreefficient systems of cell phone recovery thatsubstantially reduce the flow of this wastestream to landfills and incinerators.

• Deposit refunds on cell phones would increasethe incentive for consumers to return their usedphones for reuse and recycling. In the US, bot-tle and can recovery rates are more than twoand a half times higher in states that requiredeposits on beverage containers than in statesthat do not.

• Landfill bans on cell phones would increase thenumber of phones flowing into collection pro-grams. Legislation requiring municipalities tocreate systems for recovering, refurbishing, andrecycling used phones would make such banseven more effective. Revenues generated fromthe sale of recovered phones could help fundthese municipal programs.


• Targets for cell phone collection, reuse, andrecycling would give the wireless industry anincentive to improve program efficiency.Similarly, targets for reducing these products’toxic constituents would give cell phone manu-facturers an incentive to design for reuse andrecycling. Such targets are a critical componentof “extended producer responsibility” (EPR)policies in effect in Europe and elsewhere. TheEuropean Union’s (EU’s) recently adoptedDirective on Waste Electrical and ElectronicEquipment (WEEE Directive) establishes a cellphone recycling/reuse target of 65 percent bythe end of 2006, and its Directive on theRestriction of the Use of Certain HazardousSubstances in Electrical and ElectronicEquipment (RoHS Directive) requires the elim-ination of toxic substances (such as mercury,lead, and certain brominated flame retardants)from all electrical and electronic equipment,also by 2006. (For more information on thesedirectives, see INFORM’s fact sheets “EuropeanUnion Electrical and Electronic ProductsDirectives,” http://www.informinc.org/fact_WEEEoverview.pdf, and “The WEEE andRoHS Directives: Highlights and Analysis,”http://www.informinc.orgfact_WEEE.pdf.) Allmanufacturers wishing to sell their products inany of the EU’s 15 member states must meet allthe requirements of both directives by the datesspecified. Worldwide action such as this mayforce change in the US, especially in light ofthe Basel Convention’s Initiative for aSustainable Partnership on EnvironmentallySound Management of End-of-Life MobilePhones, adopted in December 2002. This ini-tiative, which aims to identify and establishbest practices for the refurbishment, recycling,and disposal of used cell phones, may have aneffect on the export of used cell phones by UScollection programs.

• Mandated reporting on the collection and end useof refurbished phones and recyclable materialswould provide valuable information on programefficiency and the destination of cell phones thatwind up abroad. Full disclosure of this informa-tion would allow consumers and others to eval-uate and compare the global effectiveness ofindividual programs.

5. By requiring manufacturers to bear the finan-cial and/or physical responsibility for manag-ing their products after consumers discardthem, policy makers can provide a powerfuldriver for them to create designs that facilitatecell phone reuse and recycling.

• A system of extended producer responsibilitywould give manufacturers of cell phones thatcan be efficiently refurbished and recycled acompetitive advantage. In the EU, the WEEEDirective encourages environmentally sus-tainable designs by holding manufacturersfinancially responsible for the take-back andmanagement of their products at end of life. USproducers that offer cell phones designed forreuse and recycling will be able to meet someof the criteria imposed by the directive on com-panies wishing to market their products inEurope.

• Since toxic contaminants hinder recycling, EPRcould give manufacturers a stronger incentiveto design their cell phones with fewer toxiccomponents. The EU’s RoHS Directive callsfor the substitution of toxic substances withsafer alternatives, which could increase theprofitability of recycling electronic equipmentsuch as cell phones.



By far the largest and most successful cell phone col-lection programs in the US are the two affiliated withthe wireless industry: the Wireless Foundation’sDonate a Phone program and Verizon’s HopeLineprogram.* Together, these programs account for themajority of phones — nearly 2.5 million of them —collected from 1999 through early 2003. BothDonate a Phone and HopeLine rely on ReCellular,Inc., a for-profit buyer and seller of cell phones, tocoordinate the refurbishment and recycling of phonescollected through their programs. Two smaller pro-grams, CollectiveGood and Charitable Recycling, areaffiliated with neither the wireless industry norReCellular and have collected much smaller numbersof phones. All of these programs either refurbish andresell or recycle the phones they collect, dependingon their condition. In all cases, most of the proceedsfrom the sale of refurbished phones are used for char-itable purposes.

Wireless Foundation/Donate a PhoneThe Wireless Foundation (a not-for-profit philan-thropic organization established in 1991 by theCellular Telecommunications & InternetAssociation, an international trade organizationrepresenting the interests of the wireless industry)created the Donate a Phone family of programs inSeptember 1999 for two reasons: to benefit chari-ties by tapping into the potential value of discardedcell phones and to prevent these materials fromentering the waste stream.1 Donate a Phone acceptsall types of cell phones (including batteries andaccessories such as adapters, headsets, and phone

cases), regardless of carrier, make, model, and con-dition. ReCellular is responsible for the refurbish-ment, resale, and recycling of all cell phones col-lected through Donate a Phone.

Donate a Phone comprises three separate programs,summarized below.† The Wireless Foundation isresponsible for recruiting participants into these pro-grams and coordinating charitable functions such asthe distribution of phones and revenues from theirsale. Individual participants (Motorola, Sprint, TheBody Shop, RadioShack, etc.) are responsible forrunning their own programs.

• Call to Protect. Created by the WirelessFoundation, Motorola, the National CoalitionAgainst Domestic Violence, and several wirelesscarriers, the national Call to Protect programcollects used cell phones for the benefit ofdomestic violence victims. Most phones are sentin to the program by individuals, but corporateparticipants such as Motorola and RadioShackalso conduct collections at community events andretail outlets. After refurbishment by ReCellular,the phones are either resold and the proceeds usedto benefit organizations that work to preventdomestic violence, or they are distributed free ofcharge (equipped with free airtime) to domesticviolence victims and organizations.

• Return Outreach Initiative (ROI). Under thisprogram, which began in 2002, the WirelessFoundation and ReCellular partner with wire-less carriers and retailers to benefit specifiedcharities from the sale of recovered phones.Phones are generally collected at retail outlets,

1 Cell Phone Collection Programsin the US

* Another major wireless provider, AT&T Wireless, expanded itsown cell phone recovery and reuse program in April 2003, afterresearch for this report was complete. For more information, seethe addendum at the end of this publication.

†These classifications were originally used by the WirelessFoundation to distinguish its collection partners and programs

by type and purpose, but they are now used mainly for internalrecord-keeping purposes. In the future, the Wireless Foundationintends to classify program participants into those that donatephones and revenues from phone sales to domestic violencevictims and prevention programs (i.e., Call to Protect) andthose that donate revenues from phone sales to other causes andcharities.

with community-based collection events com-plementing these permanent collection sites.Current collection partners include Sprint(whose program is described below), Nextel,and FranklinCovey.*

• PhoneRaising. Similar to ROI and launched thesame year, this program helps for-profit andnot-for-profit organizations collect used cellphones and raise funds for hospitals, civicgroups, amateur sports groups, schools, parent-teacher associations, fraternities and sororities,Boy Scout troops, youth groups, and religiousorganizations. Participants collect phones atcompany locations or through community col-lection events; donors may also send in phonesdirectly to participating companies. Currently,the largest PhoneRaising programs (describedbelow) are run by RadioShack and The BodyShop. Many program beneficiaries, such asindividual Goodwill Industries Internationaloperations, run collection drives for their ownbenefit.

Packing and sending collected phones to ReCellularare the responsibility of individual program participants,but the actual shipping costs are paid by ReCellularout of Donate a Phone program expenses. In mostcases, individual donors may also send in phones attheir own expense. Partners in the Donate a Phoneprogram generally use their own funds for advertising,public relations, staff, and other expenses.

Each Donate a Phone program sends its collected cellphones to ReCellular’s facility in Dexter, Michigan,where they are refurbished, sold “as is,” or sold torecyclers, depending on their condition. Regardless ofcondition, ReCellular pays the Donate a Phone pro-gram for these phones based on its estimate of theirvalue, which mainly depends on brand and model.

About one-third of Donate a Phone’s proceeds fromthe sale of phones to ReCellular are returned toReCellular to cover its costs, which include theshipping and processing of phones obtainedthrough the program. The remaining two-thirds —about $5 million since 19992 — go to the Wireless

Foundation to be used and distributed for charitablepurposes. The Wireless Foundation also buys refur-bished phones from ReCellular for donation todomestic violence victims, teachers, communitywatch groups, and others; some wireless carriersthat support the Wireless Foundation’s programsmatch these donations with free airtime.

From 1999 through 2002, the Donate a Phone programcollected approximately 1.5 million used cellphones.3 Approximately 75 percent of these wererefurbished by ReCellular and donated to individualsin need or were resold (either “as is” or after refur-bishment). Approximately 25 percent (375,000) wererecycled.4 Of the more than 1.1 million phones thatwere donated or resold, approximately 700,000ended up outside of the US, mostly in Latin Americabut also in Africa and Asia.5 The remainder woundup within the US.

The principal Donate a Phone programs are describedin the following sections.

Motorola/Call to Protect This program was inaugurated in 1996, whenMotorola and Rural Cellular Corp. (a national wire-less carrier) donated 40 new cell phones with freeairtime to victims of domestic violence.6 From1996 through 1998, the program made donations ofnew phones only, but in 1999 Motorola joined withthe Wireless Foundation, the National CoalitionAgainst Domestic Violence, and the wireless carri-ers Alltel, Cingular, Nextel, Rural Cellular Corp.,and Sprint in launching the present-day used cellphone collection and donation program. From 1999through the end of 2002, Call to Protect collectedover 1 million used cell phones.7

Refurbished phones collected through Call to Protectare equipped with free airtime (provided by WirelessFoundation supporters) and donated to victims ofdomestic violence, or the proceeds from their sale aredonated to organizations that work to prevent domesticviolence. In addition, Motorola sponsors an annualcompanywide phone donation event. In 2000,Motorola employees donated over 5000 used cellphones to Call to Protect. According to the WirelessFoundation, Call to Protect has raised “several milliondollars” in charitable donations since 1999.8

Cell Phone Collection Programs in the US • 11

* Nextel and FranklinCovey, with approximately 180 and 400retail outlets, respectively, began their collection programs inearly 2003.


The Collection ProcessAs a partner in the Call to Protect program,Motorola collects all types of used cell phones(including batteries and accessories such asadapters, headsets, and phone cases), regardless ofcarrier, make, model, and condition. Unlike wire-less carriers such as Sprint (a partner in the ReturnOutreach Initiative) and retailers such asRadioShack (a one-time participant in Call toProtect and a current participant in PhoneRaising),Motorola does not have any retail locations andtherefore relies on individual donations and largecollection events to recover used phones. Call toProtect obtains the majority of its phones directlyfrom individual donors, although phone drives con-ducted by other program participants, such asRadioShack, have recovered significant numbers ofphones for the program.

Motorola is a National Football League (NFL)sponsor, and its collection events are generally heldat NFL games. In 2001, events held at 27 NFLgames resulted in the collection of 15,000 to20,000 used phones; in 2002, events at 16 stadiumscollected approximately 10,000 phones.9 Motorolaalso collects used phones through citywide collec-tion campaigns conducted in partnership with localbusinesses. In Austin, Texas, a partnership withCingular Wireless for several weeks in 2001 and2002 resulted in the recovery of almost 15,000phones.10

Packing and sending cell phones collected at NFLevents are the responsibility of Motorola, but the actu-al shipping costs are currently paid by ReCellular outof Donate a Phone program expenses (in the past,shipping was provided by FedEx and CentralTransport). Phones can also be sent directly (at thedonor’s expense) to Call to Protect c/o ReCellular,Inc., 2555 Bishop Circle West, Dexter, MI 48130-1563. Donations are tax deductible; tax receipts areprovided to donors who drop off a phone in person orthey can be downloaded from the program websiteat http://www.wirelessfoundation.org/CalltoProtect/CTP_DonationReceipt.PDF.

Refurbishment, Recycling, and ResaleReCellular, Inc. (see box, page 15), is responsiblefor the recycling, refurbishment, and resale of all cellphones collected through the Call to Protect program

(see Chapter 4 for more on the refurbishment andrecycling processes). According to ReCellular, itrefurbished approximately 75 percent (750,000) ofthe 1 million phones collected by Call to Protect from1999 through the end of 2002 and recycled approxi-mately 25 percent (250,000). Refurbished phonesobtained through Call to Protect included 30,000units that were donated to victims of domestic vio-lence.11 Donated phones are pre-programmed (eitherby ReCellular or a participating wireless carrier) todial 911 and one or two other numbers (such as adomestic violence shelter); participating wirelesscarriers provide free airtime.

For More InformationInformation about Call to Protect can be found onMotorola’s website (http://www.motorola.com/content/0,1037,128-293,00.html) and the Wireless Found-ation’s website (http://www.wirelessfoundation.org/CalltoProtect/index.cfm). The WirelessFoundation’s website also provides informationabout drop-off locations (http://www.wirelessfoundation.org/CalltoProtect/HowToDonateCTP.cfm). Individuals can call 888-901-SAFE (7233)for information on how to donate their used cellphones.

Sprint/Sprint ProjectConnectAs a partner in Donate a Phone’s Return OutreachInitiative, Sprint PCS launched Sprint ProjectConnect in April 2002 to collect used cell phones anddonate the proceeds from their sale to organizationsthat provide services to people with disabilities.12

Like all phones collected through Donate a Phone,those obtained by Sprint Project Connect are sent toReCellular to be either refurbished and sold orrecycled, depending on their condition.

Funds raised from the sale of phones collectedthrough Sprint Project Connect are donated to EasterSeals and the National Organization on Disability forservices such as medical rehabilitation, job trainingand employment, child care, adult day services, andcamping and recreational services. From April 2002through February 2003, Sprint collected approximately116,000 used cell phones and raised approximately$348,000 from their sale.13


The Collection ProcessDonors may drop off used phones of all makes,models, and condition (including batteries andaccessories such as adapters, headsets, and phonecases) at any of Sprint’s roughly 450 retail stores, orat any Sprint store that provides landline service(there are about 30 of these). While most phonescollected by Sprint Project Connect are dropped offat retail outlets, donors may also bring their phonesto any Easter Seals location, of which there areapproximately 400 at clinics, rehabilitation centers,hospitals, and offices throughout the US.

In addition to these permanent cell phone collectionsites, Sprint sponsors collection events at NationalFootball League games and on college campuses.The company also promotes cell phone collections atgrand openings of its retail stores, and Sprint employ-ees can run collection events on their own. Sprintpublic relations managers work closely with theircounterparts at the Easter Seals national office,apprising them of upcoming program events and pro-viding promotional materials. The national officesends this information on to its affiliates, includingnews about collection events being organized nearspecific Easter Seals locations. Easter Seals alsoholds monthly conference calls with its affiliates todiscuss Sprint Project Connect news and progress.

Packing and sending collected cell phones toReCellular are the responsibility of Sprint, but theactual shipping costs are paid by ReCellular out ofDonate a Phone program expenses. Phones can alsobe sent directly (at the donor’s expense) to SprintProject Connect c/o ReCellular, Inc., 2555 BishopCircle West, Dexter, MI 48130. Donations are taxdeductible; tax receipt forms are available at everySprint cell phone collection box and on the SprintProject Connect website (provided below).

Refurbishment, Recycling, and Resale ReCellular (see box, page 15) is responsible for therecycling, refurbishment, and resale of all cellphones collected through Sprint Project Connect(see Chapter 4 for more on the refurbishment andrecycling processes). Of the 116,000 phones col-lected through Sprint Project Connect betweenApril 2002 and February 2003, approximately 75percent (87,000) were refurbished and resold;approximately 25 percent (29,000) were recycled.

For More InformationInformation about Sprint Project Connect can befound on Sprint’s website (http://www.sprint.com/community/communities_across/spc.html), whichincludes a link for the locations of all Sprint retailstores and Easter Seals affiliates. Information canalso be found on the Easter Seals website (http://www.easter-seals.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ntl_sprint) and the National Organization onDisability website (http://www.nod.org/cont/dsp_cont_item_view.cfm?viewType=itemView&contentId=889). General information can be found onthe Wireless Foundation’s website (http://www.wirelessfoundation.org/DonateAPhone/index.cfm)and on ReCellular’s website (http://www.wirelessrecycling.com/home/sprint_project_connect.asp).Individuals can call 888-253-1315 for informationon how to donate their used cell phones.

The Body Shop/NationalCell Phone CollectionProgram

The Body Shop has a history of participation in envi-ronmental initiatives, from minimizing packaging toreusing and recycling product containers. Moreover,in the mid-1990s the company adopted the StopFamily Violence in the Home campaign as part of itscommitment to “defend human rights and activateself-esteem.” In support of both these environmentaland human rights goals, the company became a part-ner in PhoneRaising and inaugurated the NationalCell Phone Collection Program in September 2002 atall Body Shop stores.14

Proceeds from the sale of used phones, which arerefurbished by ReCellular, are donated to theNational Coalition Against Domestic Violence. TheBody Shop’s agreement with the WirelessFoundation also stipulates that 10 cell phones mustbe donated every year to each of The Body Shop’sapproximately 250 family violence shelter partners.(These cell phones may originate from other WirelessFoundation collection partners as well as from TheBody Shop’s own collections.) Through March 2003,the National Cell Phone Collection Program had col-lected approximately 25,000 used cell phones andraised approximately $36,000 from their sale.15


The Collection ProcessThe Body Shop provides collection boxes for usedcell phones of all makes, models, and condition(including batteries and accessories such as adapters,headsets, and phone cases) at each of its approxi-mately 300 retail stores. Shop managers can publi-cize and promote the program in any manner theydeem appropriate, including community collectionevents, and employees are periodically trained toanswer basic questions about the program.

Packing and sending collected cell phones toReCellular are the responsibility of The Body Shop,but the actual shipping costs are paid by ReCellularout of Donate a Phone program expenses. Donorsreceive a tax receipt when they drop off their usedphones.

Refurbishment, Recycling, and Resale ReCellular (see box) is responsible for the recy-cling, refurbishment, and resale of all cell phonescollected through the National Cell PhoneCollection Program (see Chapter 4 for more on therefurbishment and recycling processes). Of the25,000 cell phones collected through the NationalCell Phone Collection Program between September2002 and March 2003, approximately 75 percent(18,750) were refurbished and 25 percent (6250)were recycled.

For More InformationInformation about the National Cell PhoneCollection Program can be found on The BodyShop’s website (http://www.usa.thebodyshop.com/web/tbsus/values_ase.jsp). For individual store locations,see http://www.usa.thebodyshop.com/web/tbsus/locator.jsp.

RadioShackRadioShack has been involved in the Donate a Phoneprogram since 2001 and has so far conducted threecollection campaigns, each lasting approximatelythree months.16 For the first two campaigns, thecompany was a participant in Call to Protect, whichit learned of through Motorola, a program co-founderwhose wireless products are sold in RadioShackstores. In its most recent campaign, in the summer of2002, RadioShack participated in PhoneRaising.

RadioShack’s three campaigns have together collectedapproximately 200,000 used cell phones.17

As a participant in Call to Protect, RadioShack donatedthe proceeds from its first two collection campaigns toorganizations that work to prevent domestic violence.Funds from the sale of refurbished phones collectedin the latest campaign were donated to Students inFree Enterprise, a global educational outreach organ-ization. Since 2001, RadioShack has raised approxi-mately $500,000 for charity through the sale ofrefurbished cell phones.18

The Collection ProcessIn its first two campaigns, RadioShack collected cellphones only at its retail stores, of which there areapproximately 7100 throughout the US. In the mostrecent campaign, members of Students in FreeEnterprise promoted cell phone collection in theircommunities, organizing collections on collegecampuses and at strip malls. Outside of these threecampaigns, RadioShack has no ongoing cell phonecollections at its stores. When a collection campaignis not under way, store employees are told to refercustomers interested in donating their used cellphones to the Wireless Foundation.

Packing and sending collected cell phones toReCellular are the responsibility of RadioShack, butthe actual shipping costs are paid by ReCellular outof Donate a Phone program expenses. Tax receiptsare available at drop-off locations during the collec-tion campaigns.

Refurbishment, Recycling, and Resale ReCellular (see box) is responsible for the recycling,refurbishment, and resale of all cell phones collectedthrough RadioShack (see Chapter 4 for more on therefurbishment and recycling processes). According toReCellular, of the approximately 200,000 cell phonescollected by RadioShack between 2001 and 2002, 75percent (150,000) were refurbished and 25 percent(50,000) were recycled.

For More InformationInformation about RadioShack’s collection campaigns,while they are in progress, can be found on theWireless Foundation’s website (http://www.wirelessfoundation.org/DonateaPhone/index.cfm).


Verizon Wireless/HopeLine Program

In 1995, Verizon Wireless (then Bell Atlantic Mobile)initiated the HopeLine program to provide women indomestic violence shelters with voice mailboxes forcommunicating with counselors, prospective

employers, and other supporters.20 At the time, BellAtlantic was providing work force training ondomestic violence and funding prevention programs.Certain Bell Atlantic stores began collecting phoneson a limited basis and the program went national in2000. In October 2001, after the merger withAirtouch, Cellular GE Wireless, Primeco PCS, andBell Atlantic, every Verizon retail store began to par-

Refurbishing and Reselling Used Cell Phones: ReCellular, Inc.19

Established in 1991, the for-profit companyReCellular is a “world leader” in buying, re-furbishing, and selling used cell phones. In1999, ReCellular became responsible for re-furbishing and recycling cell phones collectedthrough the Wireless Foundation’s Donate aPhone programs; in 2001, it partnered withVerizon and became responsible for cellphones collected through that company’sHopeLine program. (ReCellular also refur-bishes a significant number of phones fromother sources, including phones it buys fromwireless carriers and retailers.) ReCellularreceives used phones at its facilities inDexter, Michigan (formerly in Ann Arbor),and Miami, Florida, where they are refur-bished, sold “as is” to third parties, or soldto recyclers. Approximately two-thirds of thephones refurbished and sold by ReCellular(as well as by other refurbishers) wind upabroad, many in the developing world.

Through the end of 2002, ReCellular hadreceived over 2.4 million cell phones collect-ed through Donate a Phone and HopeLine.Of these, approximately 75 percent (1.8 mil-lion) were donated or resold, either “as is”or following refurbishment. Approximately25 percent (600,000) were recycled by thirdparties. According to ReCellular, none of thecell phones or components it sends to thirdparties for recycling wind up in landfills.

Whether or not a used phone is refurbishedlargely depends on its condition and whethera market exists for the particular brand andmodel. Phones chosen for refurbishment arecleaned and any defective parts replaced.

ReCellular also removes any carrier tags orlogos and deletes any internal messages orlocks. Finally, batteries, chargers, and operat-ing instructions are added, depending onwhether the purchaser provides its ownaccessories or requests them fromReCellular (see Chapter 4 for more on therefurbishment process). Refurbished phonesare sold to a variety of recipients, includingwireless carriers, retailers, cell phone aggre-gators (companies that buy phones and thensell them in large blocks within the US andabroad), and other cell phone dealers.

ReCellular sells phones that cannot be eco-nomically refurbished to recycling compa-nies. Through the end of 2002, ReCellularhad sent approximately 600,000 used phonesobtained through Donate a Phone andHopeLine to US recycling facilities. Thesefacilities separate the cell phone compo-nents into different material streams, mainlymetals and plastics. Metals are smelted andsold in the US and abroad for use in jewelry,piping, gold-flake paint, and other products.Plastics are mainly incinerated, though asmall amount is recovered and sold in theUS and abroad for use in such items as milkjugs, toys, and soda bottles. Approximately10 to 20 percent of the batteries contained inthe phones ReCellular receives are in suffi-ciently good condition to be reused; the restare sent to a US battery recycler.

For more information, see ReCellular’s website(http://www.recellular.net/brochure/donate.asp),or call Jenifer Chambers, Director of CharitableCollections Programs, at 734-205-2250.


ticipate in the HopeLine program. Like the WirelessFoundation’s Donate a Phone program, Verizon’srefurbishing and recycling partner in the HopeLineprogram is ReCellular.

From October 2001 through the end of 2002, Verizoncollected approximately 900,000 used cell phones(approximately 500,000 phones were collected in2002 alone).21 Verizon uses the CDMA and Analog(Tri-mode) cellular standard and distributes refurbishedphones compatible with this standard (along withfree airtime) directly to victims of domestic violence.Since October 2001, 10,000 of these donations havebeen made. The remaining phones are sold, with theproceeds — approximately $1.4 million since October2001 — donated to domestic violence shelters andprevention programs.22

The Collection ProcessHopeLine accepts every type of used cell phone(including batteries and accessories such as adapters,headsets, and phone cases), regardless of carrier,make, model, and condition. Donors can deposit theirused phones in kiosks provided at all VerizonWireless Communications stores, of which there areover 1200 throughout the US.

In addition to these ongoing in-store collections,Verizon sponsors collection events in partnership withgovernment agencies, human services organizations,and local businesses. To date, collection partners haveincluded the City of San Francisco, the New YorkCity Mayor’s Task Force on Domestic Violence, theNorth Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence,the Colorado Coalition Against Domestic Violence,Ernst & Young, KPMG Peat Marwick, and IKEA.The company also sponsors drives at football games,golf outings, and other public occasions, sometimes incooperation with one of its collection partners. Theseevents are promoted at Verizon’s retail stores.

Packing and sending collected cell phones toReCellular are the responsibility of Verizon Wireless.Funds raised from the sale of refurbished phones andrecyclable materials are used to cover the shippingcosts. Phones can also be sent directly (at the donor’sexpense) to HopeLine Program/Verizon Wireless c/oReCellular, Inc., 2555 Bishop Circle West, Dexter, MI48130-1563. Donations are tax deductible; tax receiptsare provided to donors who drop off a phone in person

or they can be downloaded from the program website athttp://www.verizonwireless.com/jsp/aboutus/wireless_issues/hopeline_recycling.jsp.

Refurbishment, Recycling, and ResaleReCellular (see box, page 15) is responsible for therecycling and refurbishment of all cell phones col-lected through the HopeLine program (see Chapter 4for more on the refurbishment and recycling process-es). Of the 900,000 used cell phones collected byHopeLine since October 2001, approximately 75 per-cent (675,000) were refurbished and 25 percent(225,000) were recycled.23 Depending on demand,ReCellular sends refurbished Tri-mode phones backto Verizon for donation to domestic violence victims;the remainder are sold.

For More InformationInformation about the HopeLine program can be foundon Verizon’s website (http://www.verizonwireless.com/jsp/aboutus/wireless_issues/hopeline_recycling.jsp)and ReCellular’s website (http://www.wirelessrecycling.com/home/hopeline.asp). Individuals interested indonating their used cell phones can call HopeLine at800-426-2790.

CollectiveGoodInternational CollectiveGood, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia,began its cell phone collection program in December2000 to help charities and provide a “socially andenvironmentally responsible means” for consumersto dispose of their used phones.24 Depending on theircondition, collected phones are refurbished at thisfor-profit company’s own facility and resold, sold “asis” to third parties (which perform refurbishing them-selves or salvage usable parts), or they are recycled.Most are sold for reuse abroad, generally to countriesin Latin America and Eastern Europe. BetweenDecember 2000 and January 2003, CollectiveGoodhad collected approximately 50,000 used cellphones.25 Of these, 70 to 80 percent were refurbishedand sold for reuse; the rest were recycled.

For every used cell phone received, CollectiveGoodpays an amount ranging from $1 to $15 to the chari-ty specified by the donor. The amount depends on theorganization’s estimate of the refurbished or recycled

unit’s value, so CollectiveGood makes a profit on anyresale revenues above that amount.26 A total of about50 charitable organizations are listed onCollectiveGood’s website; charities listed on thedonation form include the American HumaneAssociation, CARE, the Sierra Club, EnvironmentalDefense, Children’s National Medical Center, andthe Working Assets Wireless Charity Fund.CollectiveGood works closely with CARE, which isone of its collection partners. CARE promotesCollectiveGood on its website and provides informa-tion about the program in newsletters and e-mails tomembers. It also works with businesses and otherorganizations to establish cell phone drop-off sites.From the program’s inception in 2000 throughJanuary 2003, CollectiveGood made approximately$100,000 in charitable donations.27

The Collection ProcessCollectiveGood accepts all types of used cell phones(including batteries and accessories such as adapters,headsets, and phone cases) regardless of carrier,make, model, and condition. The organization usesits website to promote the program, but collectioncampaigns conducted by business and charitablepartners are beginning to outstrip individual dona-tions as a source of used phones. In 2003, the Staplesoffice supply chain agreed to establishCollectiveGood cell phone drop-off sites at each ofits approximately 1200 retail stores in the US. Thisongoing collection, which will generate funds for theSierra Club, will likely become the program’s princi-pal means of collection.

Phones can be sent directly to CollectiveGoodInternational, 4508 Bibb Blvd., Suite B-10, Tucker, GA30084. Prepaid US Postal Service labels are download-able from the organization’s website (http://www.collectivegood.com/donate_phone.htm); donation acknowledg-ment letters are sent by the individual charities.Shipping is free, except for bag phones and mountedcar phones.* (CollectiveGood will pay to ship bag

and mounted car phones when they are included indonations of 20 or more phones.)

Refurbishment, Recycling, and Resale Participants in CollectiveGood send their used cellphones to the organization’s facility in Tucker,Georgia, where those that can be refurbished are sep-arated from those that will be recycled.Refurbishment generally takes place at this facility,although a small number of phones are refurbishedby third-party organizations. Recycling is done byGlobal Investment Recovery Inc. (Tampa, FL), afunction performed until recently by WasteManagement’s Asset Recovery Group. Batteries aresent to INMETCO, a recycler affiliated with theRechargeable Battery Recycling Corp. The vastmajority of phones refurbished by CollectiveGoodare sold to users in Latin America and EasternEurope, mainly by cell phone aggregators that buy upphones for block sales.28

For More InformationInformation about CollectiveGood can be found onthe organization’s website (http://www.collectivegood.com), or by calling Seth Heine, President, at 770-856-9021.

Charitable RecyclingProgramThe Charitable Recycling Program, based inBloomfield Hills, Michigan, is run by OaklandCounty (MI) and REAP2 (Recycling Electronics andPollution Prevention), an environmental initiativesponsored by a group of 480 high-tech companies insoutheast Michigan.29 The program is supported bythe Wireless Source, a for-profit distributor of new,used, and remanufactured cell phones.

Charitable Recycling began in May 2002 as a pilotproject to determine how consumers and corpora-tions could be motivated to donate their used phones.The Wireless Source became involved because itsmain business is buying used cell phones from man-ufacturers and other companies and reselling them toaggregators. (For example, it bought used phonesfrom Staples after the company switched wirelessprovider and had to buy phones of a different brand.)


* Bag phones, also known as transportable phones, operate byequipment stored in a small carrying case, from which thephone’s antenna usually extends. Bag phones have little econom-ic value, but they are sometimes sold for reuse, generally in for-eign countries. They also contain a 2-pound lead-acid battery thatCollectiveGood removes and sends to recyclers. Some bagphones (especially those made by Motorola) are sometimes sold,either directly or through third parties, to companies that manu-facture vehicle security systems used to track stolen cars.

The Wireless Source donates a percentage of the rev-enues generated from its business to fund theCharitable Recycling Program.

Depending on their condition, collected phones arerefurbished at the Wireless Source’s own facility andresold, or they are recycled. From the program’sinception through February 2003, CharitableRecycling had collected over 40,000 cell phones.30

Approximately 62 percent (24,800) of these wererefurbished and 38 percent (15,200) were recycled.31

Almost all of the refurbished phones were resold.

For each cell phone received, Charitable Recyclingmakes a $1 to $5 donation to a charity of the donor’schoice (the larger the charity, the larger the donation).Organizations listed on the program’s websiteinclude the Rainbow Connection (a charity for chil-dren with life-threatening illnesses), the Women’sSurvival Center of Oakland County [MI], the DetroitPublic Library, EcologyFund, and the RainforestSite. If a donor fails to choose a charity, the defaultorganization is the Rainbow Connection. AlthoughCharitable Recycling will donate phones to those inneed, it received only about five requests for freephones between May and November 2002.32 FromMay 2002 through February 2003, CharitableRecycling donated approximately $60,000 to itscharitable partners.33

The Collection ProcessThe Charitable Recycling Program collects every typeof cell phone (including batteries and accessoriessuch as adapters, headsets, and phone cases), regardlessof carrier, make, model, and condition. The organiza-tion’s website originally served as the main means ofparticipation in the program, but partnerships withbusinesses and community organizations now gener-ate the majority of donations. Charitable Recyclingprovides collection bins to groups holding collectionsand is currently working with local governmentoffices in Michigan to promote phone collection inthat state. It is also beginning to work with otherbusinesses and charities to promote collection eventsthroughout the US.

Phones can be sent directly to the CharitableRecycling Program, 794-A Industrial Court,Bloomfield Hills, MI 48302. Tax receipt forms andaddress labels can be downloaded from the organiza-

tion’s website (http://www.charitablerecycling.com).Shipping is free for the organization’s charitable part-ners. Charitable Recycling will provide prepaid ship-ping labels to individuals upon request, but individ-ual contributions are generally shipped at the donor’sexpense.

Refurbishment, Recycling, and ResaleParticipants in the Charitable Recycling Programsend their used cell phones to the Wireless Source,where refurbishment takes place at the company’sown facility. Depending on their condition, phonesthat cannot be refurbished are sold to wholesalers forparts or sent to third-party companies for recycling.Maxim Industries USA (Ft. Lauderdale, FL) andGreat Lakes International Recycling (Roseville, MI)are currently the principal recyclers used, but theWireless Source, Oakland County, and REAP2 are inthe process of developing an independent recyclingcenter to ensure that no by-products of the recyclingprocess wind up in landfills. Batteries are sent toBattery Solutions, Inc. (Wayne, MI), for recycling.

Of the phones it collects through CharitableRecycling and subsequently refurbishes (along withmost of the 400,000-plus phones it purchases eachyear), the Wireless Source sells approximately 70percent to overseas wireless providers and cell phoneaggregators. These phones are then resold for reuse,mainly in Mexico and Venezuela but also in India andEastern Europe.34 The remaining 30 percent are solddirectly to US retailers, including local wirelessstores and gas stations.

For More InformationInformation about the Charitable Recycling Programcan be found on the program’s website(http://www.charitablerecycling.com), or by calling800-300-1052 ext 301.


Assuming a life span of 1.5 years per phone,INFORM estimates that by 2005, over 100 millioncell phones weighing about 50,000 tons will beretired each year in the US. An additional 500 millionphones will be stockpiled — stored away in closetsand drawers, and ultimately destined for disposal.Meanwhile, the principal cell phone collection pro-grams have diverted a total of only about 2.5 millionphones from the waste stream since 1999, a period inwhich hundreds of millions of phones have beenretired, buried in landfills, and burned in incinerators.

The collection programs now under way have been inexistence for too short a time to determine their long-term effectiveness as a means of recovering largenumbers of phones. However, INFORM’s researchsuggests that the success of these programs dependson four main factors: (1) the collection method used,(2) its convenience to potential donors, (3) publicawareness of the program generated through promo-tion and advertising, and (4) customer incentives pro-vided to encourage donation.

The collection programs that are recovering phonesin the largest numbers are the ones that make it easi-est for consumers to donate their used phones.Verizon, for example, has many more stores through-out the US than Sprint or The Body Shop, and hastherefore been able to collect many more phones forits HopeLine program than either Sprint ProjectConnect or the National Cell Phone CollectionProgram. As to public awareness, Donate a Phoneand HopeLine have reaped the benefits of greaterexposure by recovering larger numbers of phonesthan CollectiveGood or Charitable Recycling. Eventhese programs, however, are finding ways to counterthe disadvantages of small size and limited resourcesby offering greater convenience. CollectiveGood, forexample, provides free shipping for all donationsfrom individuals.

Collection MethodsThe cell phone collection programs that INFORMexamined use a variety of collection methods, pro-

mote them in different ways, and publicize them todifferent degrees. Collection methods include (1)permanent collections at retail stores; (2) short- orlong-term phone drives, held at retail stores or inpartnership with government agencies, businesses,schools, and other organizations; (3) collections atfootball games and other sports events; and (4)direct shipment by donors to the program’s head-quarters or refurbishing/recycling facility. Most ofthe programs studied rely primarily on a single oneof these methods, although they may use a combina-tion of two or more.

Permanent Collections at Retail Stores Programs that use ongoing collections at retail outletsare all very similar. Collection bins are set up at thestores and donors can drop off their used cell phonesand accessories at any time. Sprint, The Body Shop,and Verizon Wireless use these collections as theirprincipal means of obtaining used phones.*

• Of the approximately 116,000 phones collectedthrough Sprint Project Connect between April 2002and February 2003, the vast majority came fromSprint’s retail stores (smaller amounts came fromits Easter Seals affiliates).1

• The Body Shop — a relative newcomer in the cellphone collection arena — collected 23,000 phonesbetween September 2002 and March 2003 at itsretail stores, as well as at corporate offices and thecompany’s home shopping events (The Body Shopat Home parties).2

• Verizon’s HopeLine program has had considerablymore success, collecting approximately 500,000phones in 2002 alone, mainly from its retail stores.3

One reason for the relative effectiveness of Verizon’sprogram may be the fact that HopeLine has been run-ning at all Verizon retail locations for a longer period —

Collection Methods and Program Promotion • 19

2 Collection Methods and Progam Promotion

* CollectiveGood is currently in the process of establishing per-manent collection sites at Staples’ 1400 retail outlets throughoutthe US. Thus, ongoing collections at retail outlets are likely tobecome the principal means of obtaining used cell phones for thisprogram as well.


since October 2001 — so public awareness of theprogram is probably greater. Another factor may bethe larger number of collection sites. While Verizonhas over 1200 retail locations where phones can bedropped off, Sprint has only about 450 wireless retailstores and 30 landline stores. With more customersentering its stores and more sites for drop-off,Verizon has been able to collect considerably morecell phones than Sprint.

The Body Shop’s ongoing collection program beganonly recently, but so far it does not seem able to reachthe collection levels of either Verizon or Sprint. Onereason may be that customers entering its stores —unlike those who visit Sprint or Verizon stores — donot have the purchase or drop-off of cell phones inmind. Moreover, The Body Shop has only about 300retail locations where cell phones can be donated —fewer than either Verizon or Sprint.

Short- and Long-Term Phone Drives Phone drives can last from several days to severalmonths. When held at retail stores, they can bring inlarge numbers of phones, especially when the storesells wireless products.

• RadioShack’s first two nationwide collection cam-paigns, which lasted for several months during2001 and 2002 at all of its retail stores, resulted inthe collection of over 150,000 phones.4 (In anothercampaign in 2002, discussed below, collections oncollege campuses and other locations complementedthe drive at RadioShack stores.)

With over 7100 retail outlets throughout the US,RadioShack has a distinct advantage over the othernational collection programs, including those ofVerizon and Sprint. Were RadioShack to establishpermanent collection sites at all of its stores, it wouldlikely recover larger numbers of cell phones than anyother program, especially since customers come tothese stores to buy cell phones.

Short- and long-term phone drives can also be held inpartnership with a government agency, local business,school, or other organization. Generally, the collectionpartner’s reason for sponsoring the drive is to supporta local charity, further a local environmental initiative,or otherwise serve the community for public relationsreasons. While temporary drives do not yield the largenumbers of used phones that retail stores with perma-

nent collections can generate, they can be a usefulcomplement to these ongoing drives, obtaining sub-stantial amounts in a relatively short period. They arealso advantageous in that the collection partner takeson most of the responsibility for running the drive anddelivering phones to the program’s refurbishing partner.

Partnerships with government agencies. Verizonhas had considerable success supplementing itsongoing in-store collections with temporary drivesheld in partnership with government agencies. Thesecampaigns, which are generally developed by thepartner and Verizon headquarters, last from a fewweeks to several months. The company has recov-ered tens of thousands of phones through these part-nerships since October 2001.5

• In 2000, Verizon (then Bell Atlantic) sponsored theNew York City P.H.O.N.E.S. (People HelpingOthers Needing Emergency Services) initiativewith the New York City mayor’s office. This three-month drive collected over 22,000 phones at 300sites for distribution to people in need of emer-gency services.6 A similar campaign, also in NewYork City, yielded approximately 1800 phones dur-ing a one-month collection in 2002.7

• In San Francisco and Colorado, Verizon has partic-ipated in domestic violence prevention partnershipsthat included used cell phone collections.8 In SanFrancisco in 2001, city agencies succeeded in col-lecting a total of 3000 phones.9 In Colorado, 1200to 1500 cell phones were collected at Verizon retailstores over a six-month period in 2002.10

Phone drives with government agencies can also takeplace at the federal level.

• In April 2003, Sprint partnered with the US Dept.of the Interior, the US General ServicesAdministration, the US Office of PersonnelManagement, and the Office of the FederalEnvironmental Executive for a one-day cell phonedrive in Washington, DC, on Earth Day. On thatone day alone, Sprint and its partners collected sev-eral hundred phones from both governmentemployees and local residents.11

Partnerships with businesses. Private companies,especially large ones, can be ideal partners for a cellphone drive because their employees provide a guar-anteed source of donations. Such drives are usuallyconducted on behalf of selected charities, with the

company managing the collection either on-site orelsewhere in the community. Again, these arrange-ments are valuable because the collection partnerbears most of the responsibility for running the driveand subsequently shipping the phones.

The Call to Protect program has used short-termbusiness partnerships to supplement the large collec-tion events and shipments from individual donorsthat supply most of the phones it recovers.

• For several weeks in 2001 and 2002, Motorolapartnered with Cingular Wireless to collect usedphones at various locations in Austin, Texas,including the state comptroller’s office andCingular retail stores. Motorola collected approxi-mately 10,000 phones during the 2001 collectionand 4000 phones in 2002.12

• A similar partnership in Arkansas in the spring of2002 resulted in the collection of about 2000phones.13

Verizon and Sprint have also explored relationshipswith business partners.

• Since the inception of the HopeLine program inOctober 2001, Verizon has conducted phone driveswith Ernst & Young, KPMG Peat Marwick, andIKEA, each several weeks in duration, whichrecovered several thousand phones overall.14

• Sprint recently partnered with the Century 21 realestate company (which works closely with EasterSeals, one of Sprint’s charitable partners in theReturn Outreach Initiative), establishing long-termdrop-off sites at 20 company offices in easternPennsylvania. From mid-April through mid-May2003, this drive collected approximately 500phones.15

Charitable Recycling and CollectiveGood are muchsmaller programs, with more limited resources, thaneither Verizon’s HopeLine or any of the Donate aPhone programs, but they too have been able to bringin significant numbers of phones through partner-ships with local and national businesses. CharitableRecycling now obtains 70 to 80 percent of its phonesthrough such collections.

• In September 2002, Charitable Recycling estab-lished a phone drop-off site at Lifetime Fitness, ahealth club in Troy, Michigan. The club is open 24hours a day and accepts phones from members and

nonmembers. This arrangement has resulted in therecovery of approximately 300 phones per month,and the added traffic has brought the club newmembers.16

• Charitable Recycling is also partnering with HalfPrice Books, a new and used bookstore chain,which has collection bins and posters advertisingthe program in all of its 75 stores throughout theWest and Midwest. This phone drive, which beganin April 2003, collected approximately 3000phones in its first month and is still under way.17

• About half of the 27,000 phones recovered byCollectiveGood in 2002 came from businesses andcharitable partners that undertook their own short-term drives and sent the phones on to the organiza-tion’s refurbishment facility.18

Partnerships with high schools and colleges.College students are an especially good source ofdonations, since they often replace their phones sev-eral times before graduation. Like collections con-ducted with government and business partners,phone drives at schools — high schools as well ascolleges and universities — can be an effective sup-plement to ongoing collection programs. Again, thesecampaigns can save on program expenses becausestudents perform the bulk of the work.

• In RadioShack’s second campaign of 2002,Students in Free Enterprise (which is active on over1300 college and university campuses worldwide)complemented drop-off bins at RadioShack retailstores by collecting phones on college campusesand at strip malls around the country. This drive,which lasted for several months, collected 20,000to 30,000 phones.19

• Sprint has conducted phone collections with frater-nities/sororities and individual students. In the fallof 2002, one- to two-week drives at the Universityof Colorado, the University of Mississippi, theUniversity of Missouri, the University of Nebraska,Indiana University, Iowa State University, KansasState University, and Tufts University yielded atotal of approximately 1500 phones.20 According toSprint, students donated roughly equivalent num-bers at all schools, regardless of size.

• In Toledo, Ohio, Sprint and the Lucas CountyEducational Service Center (the county’s board ofeducation) have begun organizing one-week col-lections at different times during the school year,


with high schools donating their employees’ usedphones whenever new ones are issued. The firstcampaign, in February 2003, resulted in therecovery of 50 phones.21

• High school phone drives organized by The BodyShop — both company headquarters and individ-ual stores — have brought in up to 350 phones ina single week.22

Partnerships with other organizations. Verizonand Charitable Recycling have run phone collectionswith domestic violence shelters, NationalOrganization on Disability members, fraternal organ-izations, and other community groups. Because thesepartners get involved in the drives to raise money fortheir organizations, they have a strong incentive tocollect as many phones as they can.

• Over the course of several months in 2001, Verizonworked with the New York City Mayor’s TaskForce on Domestic Violence to collect phones atcity fire stations and at retail stores other thanVerizon outlets. This effort resulted in the recoveryof between 1000 and 2000 used phones.

• Acollection partnership between Charitable Recyclingand a Women of the Moose chapter in Poughkeepsie,New York, has been recovering approximately 400phones per month since early 2003.

Collections at Football Games and Other

Sports EventsSprint, Verizon, and especially Motorola have con-ducted successful used cell phone collection drives atsports events such as football games. These collec-tions are heavily promoted before the event to ensurethat large numbers of donors arrive with their cellphones in hand.

As described in Chapter 1, Motorola has used itsposition as a National Football League (NFL) spon-sor to conduct Call to Protect cell phone drives atmany NFL games, with the home team helping topromote collection. To participate, donors bringtheir phones to the game and deposit them in collec-tion bins set up at the four highest-traffic gates inthe stadium. According to Motorola, cell phonedrives hosted by 27 NFL teams in 2001 resulted inthe collection of 15,000 to 20,000 used phones. In2002, 16 events yielded approximately 10,000phones.23 Occasionally, Motorola holds these events

in partnership with Verizon (in which case recov-ered phones are divided equally between the twosponsors), or in partnership with Sprint or a localwireless carrier (in which case the phones go to Callto Protect).

Sprint and Verizon have also collected cell phones atfootball games on their own, entering into sponsor-ship agreements with specific franchises. However,these companies have not been as successful withthese events as Motorola, whose efforts have proba-bly benefited from the company’s relationship withthe NFL and the league’s cooperation in promotingMotorola’s phone drives. For example, whileMotorola collected 5000 phones at a single NFLgame in Tennessee,24 Sprint was able to collect only1800, 450, and 400 phones, respectively, at games inNashville, Kansas City, and Detroit.25 Similarly,Verizon collected only 1500, 500, and 300 phones,respectively, at games in Tampa Bay (FL), Buffalo(NY), and Green Bay (WI).26

Direct Shipment by Donors Most of the cell phone collection programs surveyedfor this report accept cell phones shipped directly byindividual donors, either to program headquarters orto a program partner such as ReCellular. Call toProtect, CollectiveGood, and the CharitableRecycling Program are the only programs that relyon this method for a significant percentage of thephones they collect.

• Call to Protect has obtained the majority of the 1million used cell phones collected since 1999through direct donations.27

• CollectiveGood obtained about half of the 27,000phones it collected in 2002 through direct ship-ments from donors.28

• Charitable Recycling originally received most ofits phones from direct donations, which nowaccount for about 20 to 30 percent of the phones itrecovers.29

Collection IncentivesBy motivating people who might not otherwise beinclined to drop off their used phones or mail them infor donation, incentives can be an important factor ina collection program’s effectiveness.


Tax ReceiptsThe most common incentive, used by all the pro-grams surveyed for this report, is a tax receipt thatallows donors to take a charitable deduction (basedon their estimate of the value of the donated unit) ontheir federal income tax return. The necessary formsare provided when donors drop off their phones orthey can be downloaded from the program website(in some cases they can also be obtained from partic-ipating charities or collection partners).

Philanthropic OpportunitiesAll the collection programs investigated byINFORM appeal to people’s philanthropic impulseby giving refurbished phones to those in need ordonating the proceeds from their sale to charities. Topromote the philanthropic side of its collection pro-gram, Verizon tries to tie the donation of usedphones to the specific social benefit of domestic vio-lence prevention. For example, during DomesticViolence Awareness and Prevention Month inOctober 2000, the company handed out domesticviolence awareness ribbons to cell phone donors atall its stores in the Northeast.

Some collection programs try to appeal to a range ofinterests by giving donors a number of charitablechoices. CollectiveGood, for example, works withclose to 200 organizations — youth groups, women’sgroups, and environmental organizations, amongmany others — that participants can specify fordonation. About 50 of these groups are listed onCollectiveGood’s website, generally the larger organ-izations with the greatest international, national, orregional interest.

Financial IncentivesThe offer of discounts or rebates on new products inexchange for a used phone can be an effective tool inpromoting cell phone donation. However, few of theprograms investigated for this report make use ofsuch incentives, and those that do have done so inonly a limited way.

Verizon’s experiences with financial incentives havebeen quite successful. During a number of several-week periods since HopeLine’s inception in 2001,the company has distributed coupons entitling cellphone donors to $5 off the price of a new cell phoneor accessory when presented at a Verizon store in

designated locations. These promotions, which havebeen held throughout the US, are usually tied to theopening of a new Verizon retail store. According toVerizon, they have resulted in a 15 to 20 percentincrease in the number of cell phones collected.30

Sprint, according to a company spokesperson, alsohopes to offer some type of financial incentive to cellphone donors starting in the summer of 2003.31 AtThe Body Shop, cell phone collection at individualoutlets can be promoted at the initiative of store man-agers, but no discounts on the company’s productsare offered. Motorola has tried offering donors dis-counts on new cell phones through its website; atseveral NFL collection events, the company gavedonors coupons that could to be used toward the pur-chase of a new Motorola phone. However, these pro-motions have been discontinued because of the logis-tical problems involved in redeeming the coupons(Motorola has no retail stores of its own).32

Promotion of CollectionProgramsPublic awareness is a primary factor in a cell phonecollection program’s effectiveness, and awarenessdepends in large part on how well a program, as wellas specific collection events and campaigns, are pro-moted. INFORM’s research indicates that publiciz-ing and promoting specific collection events can helpto increase the number of phones collected. However,INFORM’s research also suggests that most con-sumers are still not aware of the collection programsthat currently exist.

Efforts by cell phone collection programs to promotedonation generally involve ongoing campaigns onprogram websites. (In fact, while INFORM was notable to determine specific program budgets for pro-motion and advertising, spokespersons for Verizonand Sprint said that a large portion of these funds areused to develop their websites.) For collection eventsor phone drives, newspaper ads, radio commercials,and flyers distributed in the community may also beused. Drives undertaken in partnership with govern-ment agencies, local businesses, high schools, col-leges, and fraternal and charitable organizations areoften promoted through posters, leaflets, and othermaterials distributed at stores and other locations by


the partner business or organization. Programs thatcollect phones at retail outlets often use highly visi-ble collection receptacles inside the store to encour-age participation.

Internet PromotionAll of the programs surveyed for this report use theirown websites and those of their affiliates to promotethe collection of used cell phones. Generally, thesesites contain basic information on the value of donat-ing phones, the charities the program works with, themechanics of phone donation, and downloadablepostage labels and tax receipt forms. In the case ofthe Donate a Phone family of programs, informationon the Wireless Foundation’s website complementsindividual program sites. ReCellular’s website alsocontains information about the collection programswith which it is affiliated.

Advertising Campaigns At one time or another, most of the collection pro-grams investigated by INFORM have used advertis-ing to promote collection events, phone drives, andthe program itself. None, however, has made muchuse of advertising on the national level. Instead, theprograms mainly rely on in-store promotions, localadvertising in connection with specific collectionevents, and program websites.

Although nationwide advertising in print and othermedia is rare, national publicity campaigns can make abig contribution to the public’s awareness of a collec-tion program.

• Donate a Phone’s collection numbers increased sig-nificantly following an appearance by spokespeo-ple from the Wireless Foundation and the NationalCoalition Against Domestic Violence on ABC’s“Good Morning America” show in 2000.

• Sprint inaugurated Sprint Project Connect in 2002with two quarter-page ads in USA Today. Theactress Marlee Matlin was the program’sspokesperson, and she and former senator BobDole were present at the program launch.According to Sprint, this national promotionaleffort resulted in the recovery of large numbers ofphones at the program’s outset.

Verizon likewise enjoyed the benefits of nationalexposure when stories about the HopeLine program

began to appear in USA Today and other nationalnewspapers after the program’s inception in 2001.Since then, however, the company has not devotedany resources to national advertising. Similarly, sincethe successful national launch of Sprint ProjectConnect, Sprint has mainly relied on local promotionsof specific collection events rather than nationaladvertising. The Wireless Foundation claims to beplanning to secure national TV exposure in thefuture, but the organization does not devote signifi-cant resources to promoting individual Donate aPhone programs, which are responsible for their ownadvertising and publicity.33 CollectiveGood andCharitable Recycling have not tried to developnational promotional or advertising campaigns,largely, according to spokespeople for these pro-grams, because they do not have the resources to doso. Instead, both rely on their websites, word ofmouth, and promotions of local collection events topublicize their programs.

In-Store PromotionCollections at retail outlets can encourage the publicto participate by drawing attention to the programinside the store, providing comprehensive informa-tion on the benefits of cell phone donation, andensuring that company employees are knowledgeableabout the program.

According to HopeLine’s executive director,Verizon spent approximately $500,000 on cellphone receptacles designed to attract customers’attention and educate them about cell phone recy-cling and refurbishment.34 INFORM visited severalVerizon stores in New York City and found highlyvisible donation kiosks that provided tax receiptforms as well as some basic information about theprogram. At Sprint stores, in contrast, the cardboardboxes that serve as cell phone receptacles wear outeasily and are easy to overlook; INFORM visited oneSprint store where the box had been removed and notreplaced, and no information on cell phone donationwas posted anywhere in the store. In addition, bothSprint and Verizon fail to publicize their collectionprograms with signs posted inside the store on instore windows.

Verizon and The Body Shop provide some informa-tion about HopeLine and the National Cell PhoneCollection Program at the collection kiosks in their


stores, but nothing about why donating cell phones isimportant. At Sprint stores, pamphlets attached todonation receptacles do say something about pro-gram benefits and the purpose of cell phone collec-tion, but the information is again very basic, omittingany discussion of the problem of electronic waste andthe importance of cell phone reuse and recycling.Moreover, employees at Sprint and Verizon retailoutlets are not instructed to tell customers who pur-chase new phones about the collection programunder way at the store.

An informal telephone survey conducted byINFORM indicated that customer service representa-tives at Verizon, Sprint, and The Body Shop wereknowledgeable about their companies’ collectionprograms. They were able to direct callers to thenearest collection sites and were familiar with pro-gram details such as whether donated cell phones arerefurbished or recycled. At the stores themselves,however, employee knowledge seems to vary consid-erably, with some employees able to provide compre-hensive information and others confused about someprogram details. According to RadioShack, its customerservice representatives are told about any collectioncampaign that is under way.

Promoting Collection EventsMotorola relies on collection events for most of thephones it collects, and according to a companyspokesperson, their success is directly tied to the pro-motion that takes place beforehand. When the com-pany gets out the message that used cell phones havevalue, that donation is important, and that a collec-tion event will take place soon, the public is muchmore likely to drop off large numbers of phones.35

(Motorola has also found that holding its collectiondrives a few times a year accustoms people to theevents and results in larger donation numbers.) Thecompany generates publicity for its collectionsthrough large press events, but ads in the local mediaand one-of-a-kind publicity events can also helpincrease collection numbers.

Motorola’s press events often feature local politiciansand sports figures who encourage the public to par-ticipate in the upcoming collection. At the TennesseeTitans game where Motorola collected 5000 phones,several football players helped publicize the drive bymaking public service announcements and participat-

ing in other promotions. (Sprint, too, has used enter-tainers — including, in addition to Marlee Matlin,members of the band ‘N Sync, television actress StarJones, and NASCAR racer Kyle Pettery — to pro-mote collection events.) Motorola also publicizes itscollections through NFL websites, e-mails sent to fanclubs and season-ticket holders, promotions and adsat the stadium, and ads in programs sold at the game.When a collection is sponsored by Motorola in partner-ship with another wireless carrier, the latter some-times posts ads at its retail outlets or distributes circularspromoting the event.

Television, radio, and newspaper ads can also help,though they are no guarantee of a phone drive’ssuccess. Motorola used TV commercials to publi-cize several cell phone collection events at NFLgames in Denver and Tennessee, and donationsincreased markedly. On other occasions, however,TV ads seemed to make little difference. For itspart, Sprint promoted a phone collection in KansasCity, Missouri, with dozens of 30-second publicservice announcements and commercial spots thatran for a month on a local TV station. The companyalso ran ads in a local newspaper, promoted theevent on college campuses, and had 100,000 fliersinserted into a newspaper given to fans who parkedat the stadium during the week before the collectionday. Although collection numbers were not as high asSprint had hoped (it was a rainy day), the companybelieves that these multiple promotional efforts didraise public awareness of the importance of donat-ing cell phones.36

Sprint has taken a more unusual approach to promot-ing cell phone reuse. In 2002, the company’s UgliestPhone Contest encouraged New York and NewJersey residents to donate their old phones to SprintProject Connect. Customers dropped off their phonesat two Sprint outlets in New York City and Totowa,New Jersey, where their “ugliness” was judged by anEast Village fashion designer. Sprint publicized thedrive with local radio spots and newspaper and mag-azine ads that featured “cell phone fashion do’s anddon’ts.” The event, which lasted for a week in bothlocations, collected about 200 phones overall.37

While this is not a huge number of phones, suchinnovative approaches can be helpful in generatingpublic awareness of the existence and benefits of cellphone collection programs.


Direct Mail SolicitationCollectiveGood receives the vast majority of its usedcell phones from individuals who send them indirectly. Many of these people learn about the programfrom informational e-mails sent by CollectiveGood’scollection partners or by CollectiveGood itself, whichmaintains a database of participants and buys lists ofpotential donors. CollectiveGood sends periodicfollow-up e-mails encouraging donors to inform theirfriends and colleagues about the program and send inadditional phones themselves. According to CollectiveGood, these electronic solicitations, along with thefree shipping labels the program provides, haveproven extremely effective as a means of obtainingused phones.38


All of the programs surveyed for this report are mak-ing money — in some cases, significant amounts —from the sale of refurbished phones. Although a largeportion of these revenues, approximately one-third inmost cases, is used to cover the costs of shipping,refurbishing, and recycling used phones, the sizableincome generated distinguishes these programs fromother take-back efforts in the US (such as variouscomputer recycling programs run by manufacturers),which typically claim that collecting products forreuse and recycling is not a profitable venture.

The existing cell phone collection programs are alsounique in using most of their revenues for charitablepurposes. Among not-for-profit programs, the per-centage donated ranges from two-thirds in the case ofDonate a Phone to approximately 75 percent in thecase of Verizon’s HopeLine program. Similarly, thefor-profit programs CollectiveGood and CharitableRecycling donate a significant percentage of theirproceeds from phone sales to charity — over one-halfin the case of CollectiveGood (Charitable Recyclinghas not estimated its donations as a percentage of itsrevenues). And while neither Verizon, the WirelessFoundation, nor any Donate a Phone program partic-ipant (e.g., Sprint, The Body Shop, or RadioShack)makes any profit itself, the for-profit companyReCellular generates $25 to $30 million in annualrevenues from sales of refurbished phones and recy-clable materials from all sources (ReCellular wouldnot disclose the revenues generated specifically byphones collected through Donate a Phone andHopeLine).

Why do these programs donate so much of theirincome to charity? Part of the reason may simply bethat the Wireless Foundation established Donate aPhone on the philanthropic model and subsequentprograms followed suit. INFORM’s research alsosuggests that the charitable component, by provid-ing an incentive for partners and consumers to getinvolved, is regarded by the programs as essential torecovering used phones. This is a crucial factor, butas the programs amass millions of dollars from thesale of refurbished phones, it is worth considering

whether more of their income should be used forpurposes directly related to managing cell phonewaste. As we saw in Chapter 2, the programs as theycurrently exist are recovering only a tiny fraction ofthe millions of cell phones discarded each year, andcollection rates would undoubtedly rise if moreresources were devoted to advertising and othermeans of promotion. Finally, the ultimate fate of thevast majority of refurbished phones that are soldabroad is an issue that no current program has so faraddressed. Ensuring that these phones are recov-ered, recycled, and disposed of responsibly at theirend of life will require ingenuity and significantresources, but a global and permanent solution tothe problem of cell phone waste requires that thischallenge be met.

Revenues from the Sale ofRefurbished Phones andRecyclable MaterialsThe average price of a refurbished phone is $14 to$16 per unit.* Phones sold for the recyclable materialsthey contain command far lower prices. Generally,third-party recyclers pay by the pound, based on theestimated value of the metal components; phone acces-sories command lower prices than the phones them-selves. Revenues from phones sold to recyclers fluctu-ate slightly as the demand for specific materials risesand falls. Thus, if a larger market existed for a materi-al such as lead, which currently is not in great demand,the collection programs would be able to increasetheir revenues from cell phones sold for recycling.

As mentioned in Chapter 1, the for-profit companyReCellular is responsible for refurbishing and

Program Revenues, Expenses, and Charitable Donations • 27

3 Program Revenues, Expenses, and Charitable Donations

* When program revenues are adjusted to reflect expenses, the average revenues each program generates per phone are muchlower. ReCellular and Charitable Recycling did not provide exactfigures, but CollectiveGood disclosed that it makes an average of$3 to $5 per cell phone once expenses are subtracted. In the case ofphones that have no economic value, the program takes a loss ofabout $1 per phone. Personal communication, Seth Heine, President,CollectiveGood International, September 19, 2002.


reselling, or selling to recyclers, all cell phones col-lected by the Wireless Foundation’s Donate a Phonefamily of programs and Verizon’s HopeLine program.CollectiveGood and Charitable Recycling, whichhave collected far fewer phones than either of theselarger programs, have generated much smaller rev-enues from the sale of refurbished units.

Donate a Phone. A proprietary agreement with theWireless Foundation stipulates the price thatReCellular pays Donate a Phone for used cellphones of specific makes and models (this amountis based on ReCellular’s estimate of a phone’sresale value). About one-third of Donate a Phone’sincome from these sales is returned to ReCellular tocover its costs, which include the shipping and pro-cessing of phones obtained through the program.The remaining two-thirds go to the WirelessFoundation. The Wireless Foundation uses abouthalf of these revenues to cover its own expenses,including the administrative costs of running theprogram, and for distribution to its recipient chari-ties. The remaining half is distributed to individualDonate a Phone programs (such as those run byMotorola, RadioShack, and The Body Shop) for dis-bursement to the charities of their choice (some ofthese charities receive funds directly from theWireless Foundation). Since 1999, the Donate aPhone program has generated about $5 million inrevenues used and distributed by the WirelessFoundation for charitable purposes.1

HopeLine. Verizon donates approximately 70 percentof the revenues from the sale of recovered phones todomestic violence shelters and prevention programsand uses approximately 5 percent to run theHopeLine program. Approximately 25 percent isused by ReCellular to cover its own costs. FromOctober 2001 through the end of 2002, HopeLineraised approximately $1.4 million from the sale ofused phones.2

CollectiveGood. CollectiveGood resells the phonesit refurbishes for an average of $8 to $10 per phone,although on occasion it is able to charge as much as$75. According to CollectiveGood, the “slight profit”it makes (above and beyond the $1 to $15 per phonethat it donates to charity) is enough to sustain it, butmuch of its revenues go to cover the costs of the pro-gram. While most of the collection programsreviewed for this study would not disclose theamounts they receive from third-party recyclers, thepresident of CollectiveGood said his organizationreceives $.07 to $.45 per pound for recyclables,mainly from Global Investment Recovery Inc.(Tampa, FL).3

Charitable Recycling. This program sells its refur-bished phones for an average of $20 per unit, with theprice ranging from $6 to $150. Charitable Recyclinghas collected fewer phones than any of the other pro-grams discussed in this report — about 40,000 fromthe program’s inception in May 2002 through early

ReCellular’s Revenues from Selling Refurbished Phones and Recyclable Materials4

ReCellular pays Donate a Phone based on itsestimate of the resale value of cell phonesobtained through the program. It keeps asprofit any revenues it receives above andbeyond that amount from the sale of thephones to third parties. In the case ofphones obtained through HopeLine,ReCellular keeps approximately 25 percentof the revenues it generates.

Altogether, ReCellular generates $25 to $30million in annual revenues from the sale ofrefurbished cell phones and recyclable mate-rials from all sources. ReCellular sells its

phones — both those it refurbishes and thoseit sells “as is” — for an average price of $14 to$16 per unit. Refurbished phones cost anaverage of $45 to $50. Generally, the companydoes not receive more than $100 per phone.ReCellular also sells used cell phones to recy-clers, with the amount received depending onthe current value of the constituent metals(the company would not disclose any exactamounts to INFORM). ReCellular bears thecosts of shipping 80 to 90 percent of the bat-teries contained in the phones it receives toINMETCO, a battery recycler affiliated with theRechargeable Battery Recycling Corp.

February 2003. If Charitable Recycling succeeds inincreasing its collection numbers, the average priceper phone is likely to decline. This program is uniquein that its funding comes from a for-profit business— the Wireless Source — which buys, refurbishes,and resells used phones or sells them to recyclers.Because the Wireless Source covers the programcosts, Charitable Recycling does not have to pay thecosts of collection with revenues generated fromphone sales.5

Collection ProgramExpensesRevenues that the collection programs receive fromthird parties — such as retailers, recyclers, and cellphone aggregators — for refurbished phones andrecyclable materials are used to offset programexpenses. (As noted above, in the case of Donate aPhone and HopeLine, these revenues are based on theanticipated value of these materials.) The largestexpenses are generally collection and shipping (whereshipping is not paid by donors and third parties), andspokespeople for every program surveyed for thisreport emphasized that bringing these costs downwould significantly increase the revenues availablefor charitable purposes. Other collection programexpenses are associated with administration, process-ing, and advertising and promotion.

Donate a Phone. As described in Chapter 1, the indi-vidual Donate a Phone programs bear the responsi-bility — and the costs — of collecting used cellphones and packaging them for shipment toReCellular. In the case of phones collected byMotorola, Sprint, The Body Shop, and RadioShack,the actual shipping costs are paid by ReCellular outof Donate a Phone program revenues. According tothe Wireless Foundation’s executive director, approx-imately one-third of the value of phones collectedthrough Donate a Phone is spent on ReCellular’sshipping and processing costs.6

HopeLine. Similarly, approximately 25 percent ofthe value of every phone collected through Verizon’sHopeLine program is used to cover shipping and pro-cessing costs. These programs claim to be looking forways to decrease these costs in order to become morecost-effective.

CollectiveGood/Charitable Recycling. For thesetwo programs as well, collection and shippingaccount for the bulk of their costs. Because CollectiveGood provides free shipping in almost all cases(including donations from individuals), its shippingcosts are generally higher than those of other pro-grams. Approximately 35 percent of its revenues areused to collect cell phones and ship them to the pro-gram’s refurbishing facility. Another 10 percent of rev-enues cover administrative costs.7 (Both CollectiveGood and Charitable Recycling also pay to ship cellphone batteries to recyclers.) The Charitable RecyclingProgram offers prepaid shipping to some of its partnerorganizations and to other organizations upon request,but it does not offer free shipping to individuals whosend in phones on their own. (The WirelessFoundation offers free shipping to individuals only fordonations of over 100 phones, claiming that the costsare prohibitive — $3 to $4 per phone. Verizon pro-vides no free shipping to individual donors.)

Charitable Donations Since 1999, the Wireless Foundation, Verizon,CollectiveGood, and Charitable Recycling have con-tributed over $6.5 million to charities from the rev-enues generated through their programs.

Donate a Phone. According to the WirelessFoundation, the total funding generated for charitableprograms from September 1999 through the end of2002 was about $5.03 million — the largest amountof any collection program.8 Beneficiaries includepartner charities in the Call to Protect, ReturnOutreach Initiative (ROI), and PhoneRaising collec-tion campaigns, in addition to the Wireless Foundationitself and its recipient charities. As noted previously,the Wireless Foundation uses approximately two-thirds of the revenues received from Donate a Phonefor charitable purposes. A small portion of thisincome — approximately 5 percent — goes to coverthe Wireless Foundation’s own expenses.

From September 1999 through the end of 2002, theWireless Foundation also donated 20,000 newphones and 30,000 refurbished phones collectedthrough Donate a Phone to individuals in need.9 Ofthese, approximately 30,000 new and refurbishedphones went to victims of domestic violence. Most ofthe remaining phones went to ClassLink, a Wireless

Program Revenues, Expenses, and Charitable Donations • 29


Foundation program that provides cell phones toteachers for use in the classroom or on class trips.Some also went to the Communities on Phone Patrolprogram, a national neighborhood watch organization.The Wireless Foundation matches these cell phonedonations with free airtime secured from some ofDonate a Phone’s participating wireless carriers.According to the Wireless Foundation, the value ofthese airtime gifts is at least $6 million annually.(Donations of airtime are made to the phone recipientsthemselves, rather than to the Wireless Foundation.)

As described in Chapter 1, the programs run by indi-vidual Donate a Phone participants currently benefitthese charitable organizations:

• Sprint uses the proceeds from the sale of refur-bished phones to benefit Easter Seals and theNational Organization on Disability. From April2002 through February 2003, Sprint collectedapproximately 116,000 used cell phones andraised approximately $348,000 from their sale.10

• Phones collected through Call to Protect, and/orthe funds raised through their sale, are donated todomestic violence victims and organizations thatwork to prevent domestic violence. According tothe Wireless Foundation, Call to Protect hasraised “several million dollars” in charitabledonations since 1999, which have been placed inthe foundation’s Call to Protect Endowment.11

• The Body Shop donates phones and phone pro-ceeds to domestic violence shelters and theNational Coalition Against Domestic Violence.Through March 2003, the National Cell PhoneCollection Program had collected approximately$36,000 from refurbished phone sales.12

• RadioShack’s collection campaigns have benefiteddomestic violence prevention organizations andStudents in Free Enterprise. Since 2001, this retailchain has raised approximately $500,000 for charitythrough the sale of refurbished cell phones.13

HopeLine. Of all the cell phone collection programssurveyed for this report, Verizon contributes thelargest percentage of the revenues its raises from thesale of refurbished phones to charity — approximately75 percent (about 5 percent of which covers programexpenses). This may be because Verizon deals with itscharitable partners directly rather than through a thirdparty such as the Wireless Foundation. From October2001 through the end of 2002, Verizon contributed

approximately $1.4 million to domestic violence shel-ters and prevention programs through the HopeLineprogram.14 This amount includes the value of approx-imately 10,000 cell phones equipped with free airtimethat Verizon donated to domestic violence victims.

CollectiveGood. CollectiveGood donates approxi-mately 55 percent of the revenues raised from thesale of refurbished phones to charity — approximately$100,000 since the program’s inception in late 2000through January 2003. In the last several months of2002, the organization was distributing approxi-mately $12,000 in charitable contributions eachmonth. In 2003, it expects to donate from $250,000to $500,000.15

Depending on the type and value of the collected cellphone and whether it includes a charger and batteries,CollectiveGood returns from $1 to $15 per unit to acharity of the donor’s choice.16 As noted in Chapter1, about 50 charities are listed on the organization’swebsite, including CARE, Environmental Defense,and the Working Assets Wireless Charity Fund. Inaddition, revenues from the sale of phones recoveredat drop-off sites now being established at Staplesstores nationwide will be donated to the Sierra Club.Because collection, shipping, and most refurbishingare done by CollectiveGood rather than by thirdparties, CollectiveGood’s president is confident thatrevenues from cell phone sales will grow.

Charitable Recycling. Charitable Recycling’s dona-tions to charity do not depend on the value of thephones it collects. Instead, it donates $1 to $5 perphone depending on the size of the recipient charity,regardless of the phone’s condition or model andwhether it is ultimately refurbished and resold orrecycled. From May 2002 through February 2003,Charitable Recycling donated approximately$60,000 to its charitable partners.17 As mentioned inChapter 1, these include the Ecology Fund and theRainforest Site. Since the Wireless Source covers theprogram’s expenses, the amount donated is roughlyequivalent to the amount raised through cell phonesales. Charitable Recycling also has an unusualarrangement with the Seekonk, Massachusetts, policedepartment, which serves as a drop-off site for usedphones. Upon request, the Wireless Source will refur-bish (and pre-program to dial 911) a specified num-ber of phones and return them at no cost to a shelterrun by the New Hope Battered Women Program.18

Whether a used cell phone gets refurbished or recy-cled depends first of all on its condition: Is it dam-aged? Can it make and receive calls? Can it performother basic functions according to manufacturerspecifications? When a shipment of phones arrivesat ReCellular or some other refurbishing facility,those that do not work or are too damaged to be eco-nomically refurbished are separated out and sent forrecycling. The rest are assessed as to the costs ofrefurbishment: Are replacement parts available andat what cost? How long will it take to disassemblethe phone, replace faulty parts, and reassemble thephone? Finally, these costs are examined in light ofthe phone’s technology (e.g., analog or digital), theavailability of technical support from the originalmanufacturer, and the phone’s saleability given thedemand for specific makes and models.

The market demand for a specific cell phone dependson its technology, appearance, functions, size,weight, and other factors. While the popularity ofparticular brands and models changes frequently, allthe collection programs reviewed for this reportagreed that, as of the end of 2002, Nokia 5100- and6100-series phones were in especially high demand.According to ReCellular, its top five phones in orderof popularity are the Motorola c60, Nokia 5125,Nokia 5190, Nokia 8260, and Samsung 6100.1 TheCharitable Recycling Program’s list of high-demandphones includes the Nokia 8260 and also its 8160 and5165 models, as well as the Motorola 720.2

CollectiveGood lists Nokia’s 5120, 5160, 6120,6160, and 8260 phones and Motorola StarTACphones as among the most popular.3

Often, it is not economical to refurbish phones withoutmoded technology. For example, because analogphones are no longer in high demand in the US, thecollection programs generally sell them either torecyclers or to a third party for refurbishing and sub-sequent sale abroad. Similarly, bag phones and

mounted car phones are usually recycled.*Charitable Recycling acknowledges that it sells ana-log and other outdated models to refurbishers incountries such as Mexico and China, where laborcosts are low.4

Refurbishing Cell Phones

The process used by ReCellular, which refurbishesmost of the cell phones collected by the programssurveyed for this report, is typical. The companymarkets three categories of used phone: refurbished,graded, and raw. Phones in the refurbished categoryare refurbished by ReCellular and sold. Gradedphones are tested to confirm that they are fully func-tioning and are sold at lower cost than refurbishedphones. Phones in the raw category are sold to dis-tributors and wholesalers, which buy phones “as is”in large quantities and may refurbish them them-selves. Some raw phones may also end up being soldto recyclers.

Phones selected for refurbishment are tested to deter-mine whether they perform various functions correct-ly, such as turning on and off, ringing and vibrating,displaying prompts, recharging, etc. Once parts havebeen repaired and replaced as needed, ReCellularresets the phone’s user locks, clears all phone books,timers, voice messages, text messages, and call lists,and erases all wireless provider logos and internalmessages. The phone is then programmed in English,unless otherwise specified, and buffed and cleaned tolook like new.

The Charitable Recycling Program andCollectiveGood conduct similar tests and performsimilar repair and replacement procedures.Charitable Recycling conducts between 20 and 40tests against original equipment manufacturer speci-fications to certify that a refurbished unit performs aswell as a new phone.5 CollectiveGood performs sim-ilar quality assurance tests, generally programmingrefurbished phones to be compatible with a variety of

Refurbishment and Recycling of Used Cell Phones • 31

4 Refurbishment and Recycling of Used Cell Phones

* As noted in Chapter 1, bag phones operate by equipment storedin a small carrying case from which the phone’s antenna usuallyextends.


carriers. According to CollectiveGood, the moreinformation it has on a phone’s destination the easierit is to refurbish, since the software programming canbe tailored to the particular carrier.6

On average, it takes between 15 and 30 minutes torefurbish a cell phone, depending on the phone modeland condition. Once refurbishment is complete, thehandset is generally packaged in a new box withcharger, batteries (usually new ones), and program-ming instructions.

Impediments toRefurbishment and HowThey Can Be Overcome

A number of problems associated with refurbishmentare common to all cell phones, while some are spe-cific to certain makes and models. These problemsmake the refurbishment process more difficult andcostly. In many cases, however, alleviating themcould be accomplished through relatively simplechanges in cell phone design and manufacture.

Durability of ComponentsPerhaps the most significant impediment to refur-bishment is the need to replace worn components,which adds time and costs to the process. In particu-lar, cell phones undergoing refurbishment often musthave their external parts replaced because the plastic

scratches and breaks easily. According toCollectiveGood and ReCellular, a cell phone’s plas-tic parts tend to be the most damaged, withCharitable Recycling adding that the “back plastics”on many phones can be expensive and difficult toreplace.7 If cell phones were made of more durableplastics, they would be significantly cheaper and eas-ier to refurbish.

Cell Phone DesignA cell phone’s design can also create obstacles inthe refurbishment process, with some models pre-senting particular problems. For example, MotorolaStarTAC phones have flip panels and other movableparts that often must be replaced. (According toReCellular, the culprit is frequently a defectivehinge.8) As a result, refurbishing these phones canbe expensive, difficult, and time consuming.External antennae are another problem. CertainMotorola phones have an antenna designed to slidein and out, which tends to break more often thaninternal antennae. Similarly, certain Nokia 5100 and6100 models have stationary antenna ports thatbreak easily when the phone is dropped. Phonesdesigned without external parts are much easier andless costly to refurbish.

Another issue is the cell phone’s finish. Somephones, such as the Audiovox 135 and the Qualcomm860, have soft or glossy finishes that scratch easilyand cannot be restored by buffing. In these cases theentire housing must be replaced, which makes refur-bishment more expensive. Matte finishes, in contrast,are much easier to refurbish. Also, many handsetshave the carrier logo silk-screened into the cell phonehousing. This must be erased or replaced duringrefurbishment. In contrast, certain Nokia 5100- and6100-series phones have these logos printed on alabel that can be easily removed.

Ease of DisassemblySome phones contain as many as eight screws anddisassembling them is not cost-effective, because ittakes too much time. Instead, these units are generallyrecycled. In contrast, the Kyocera 2035, Nokia 5120,and other Nokia models have interchangeable face-plates that can be snapped on and off, without toolsor screws, reducing the overall costs of refurbish-ment. In general, phones designed to be easily disas-

Basic Components of a Cell Phone

• The handset, including —

° The printed wiring board

° The liquid-crystal display panel(LCD)

° The keypad, antenna, speaker, andmicrophone

° The carrying case

• The power source/batteries

• An adapter to charge the batteries

sembled are cheaper and easier to refurbish becauseless time is needed to take them apart and put themback together.

Standardized AccessoriesRefurbishment is also hindered when many modelsof a single cell phone brand each requires the use ofa different type of battery and/or adapter. For exam-ple, while a phone from Nokia will run on one ofthree types of battery used in that manufacturer’scell phones, a Motorola phone requires one ofapproximately 10 different battery types. Thus, find-ing the right battery for a refurbished Nokia phone iscomparatively easy compared to matching the bat-tery for a phone from Motorola. Similarly foradapters, since each Nokia cell phone model usesone of only a few types of adapter, finding a replace-ment is relatively quick and easy. Samsung,Ericsson, and Audiovox, however, use 7 to 10 differ-ent adapter types in their phones. Standardizing cellphone design elements would allow adapters, batter-ies, and other accessories to be used with many dif-ferent brands and models of phone.

SoftwareOften the biggest challenge in refurbishing cellphones is modifying the internal software. Forexample, deleting welcome messages and wirelessprovider messages and resetting internal phone locksare time-consuming and difficult tasks. Less compli-cated software and locks would minimize this prob-lem considerably.

Recycling Cell Phones

The collection programs discussed in this reportsend phones that cannot be refurbished — as well asbatteries and accessories such as adapters, headsets,and phone cases — to recyclers that either processthe phones on their own or separate the componentsand resell them to other companies. MaximIndustries USA, Inc. (which does recycling for theCharitable Recycling Program), Global InvestmentRecovery Inc. (which recycles phones forCollectiveGood), and Great Lakes InternationalRecycling (another company used by CharitableRecycling) all pay the collection programs for the

phones they receive.* Maxim Industries (Ft.Lauderdale, FL) also pays the shipping costs ondeliveries of 3000 phones or more, and GlobalInvestment Recovery (Tampa, FL) pays for shippingregardless of quantity.

When a shipment of phones arrives at a recyclingfacility, the components are divided into differentmaterial streams, mostly metals and plastics. (Cellphones consist of approximately 50 percent copper,aluminum, and other metals; 40 percent plasticshell; and 10 percent industrial rubber.9) Metal com-ponents undergo smelting to recover the individualmetals, which are then sold. Plastics are mainlyincinerated, although a small amount is recycledinto such products as milk jugs and soda bottles.(See Chapter 5 for information on the ultimate desti-nation of recycled cell phones.)

ReCellular. All of the handsets, batteries, and acces-sories from phones sent to ReCellular are recycled bythird parties in the US. Smelting for metals recoveryoccurs at these facilities. Most of the plastics areburned off during this process, along with the rubberfrom cell phone keypads. A small amount of the fabriccollected from phone cases (including imitationleather) is sold to textile manufacturers for reuse.

According to ReCellular, smelting is monitored andperformed in accordance with all applicable environ-mental laws. All of ReCellular’s recyclers providecopies of state certifications and licenses, as well ascertificates of destruction/consumption for each ship-ment processed. ReCellular claims that no materialsare landfilled.10

CollectiveGood. CollectiveGood sends cell phonesand accessories (batteries excepted) to GlobalInvestment Recovery, which shreds the handsets andseparates the components into metals, plastics, andother materials such as rubber. These are then sent toEurope for smelting and incineration for energy recov-ery.11 Dust from the shredding process is collected andrefined overseas. Global Investment provides its cus-tomers with copies of state certifications and licenses,as well as certificates of destruction/consumption for


*ReCellular generally pays third parties to recycle accessories such as adapters and headsets. The company would not discloseto INFORM the identities of the recyclers it uses.

each shipment processed. Like ReCellular, the compa-ny claims that no cell phone materials are landfilled.12

Charitable Recycling. Maxim Industries USA andGreat Lakes International (Roseville, MI) recyclephones collected by Charitable Recycling. Maximclaims that its processes are environmentally safe andthat no materials are disposed of in landfills.13 GreatLakes does not perform recycling on its own, butsorts the components and sells them to other compa-nies. Different materials are sold to different buyers,but most are sent to smelters for metals recovery,both in the US and abroad. How the materials thatGreat Lakes sends abroad are processed and whatultimately becomes of them are not known.

The Market for RecycledMaterials

Depending on market demand, many components ofcell phones can be resold after recycling, especiallythe metals. The most valuable metals in cell phonesare silver, gold, and copper. While a material such asgold is generally in high demand, the market forcopper is much smaller. Gold recovered from phonesis used in the manufacture of jewelry and gold-flakepaint. Recycled copper is commonly used to makecopper pipes.

Most of the plastics contained in cell phones areburned off during metals recovery. Of the remainder,very little is recovered. Separating plastics is difficultand labor intensive, and since virgin materials aremuch cheaper, it does not pay to recover them.Similarly, the market for mixed plastics is very small.According to ReCellular, a small amount of plasticsrecovered from the phones it sends for recycling isshredded and sold, mostly to injection-molding com-panies to be made into milk jugs, soda bottles, andchildren’s toys.

Reusing and RecyclingBatteries

The batteries contained in the typical cell phoneaccount for about one half of its weight. Thus, of the

50,000 tons of cell phones expected to be retired peryear in the US by 2005, approximately 25,000 tonswill be batteries, nearly all of them rechargeables.Rechargeable batteries generate less waste than sin-gle-use batteries because they can be recharged hun-dreds of times, but they also contain many hazardousmaterials, such as cadmium, nickel, zinc, and copper,which pose serious environmental risks when buriedin municipal landfills or burned in incinerators. Thevast majority of newer cell phones are powered bynickel-metal hydride or lithium-ion batteries, whichare increasingly replacing nickel-cadmiums as thepower source for these devices.

Alone among the cell phone refurbishers discussed inthis report, ReCellular reuses 10 to 20 percent of thebatteries contained in the phones it receives in thephones it refurbishes.14 The number reused dependson functionality. ReCellular sends the remaining bat-teries for recycling, although many of them couldprobably be reclaimed for reuse. CollectiveGood andCharitable Recycling recycle almost 100 percent ofthe batteries they collect.15

The International Metal Reclamation Co., Inc.(Ellwood City, PA), known as INMETCO, is the solerecycler of batteries recovered through the collectionprograms surveyed for this report. INMETCO isunder contract with the Rechargeable BatteryRecycling Corp. (RBRC), an industry organizationthat operates a nationwide program to take back andrecycle rechargeable batteries. Cell phone batteriesdestined for recycling are either removed by therefurbisher and sent to INMETCO or the entirephone is sent to a general recycling company, whichsends the batteries on to INMETCO.

When a shipment arrives at INMETCO, the batteriesare sorted according to chemistry (nickel-cadmium,lithium-ion, etc.) and then processed to remove mostof the plastic. The remaining plastic is burned forenergy recovery during the smelting process, whichrecovers most of a battery’s constituent metals.Cadmium (a persistent, bioaccumulative, and highlytoxic chemical) is handled by a separate processingfacility, and is sold primarily to battery manufactur-ers for reuse in new batteries. Smaller amounts ofcadmium are sold to third parties, such as glass andpigment manufacturers. The remaining metals, most-ly nickel, iron, manganese, and copper, are melted


down and sold to the stainless steel industry, whichuses them in a variety of products such as automo-biles, corrosion-resistant materials, and kitchensinks. According to INMETCO, none of the batterymaterials it manages are landfilled.16

Impediments to Recyclingand How They Can BeOvercome

While most of the metals contained in a cell phonecan be recovered and sold, there is little market forrecycled plastics and most are burned off in thesmelting process. Since plastics make up about 40percent of a cell phone’s contents, this represents asignificant waste of materials — especially consider-ing the effort that goes into collecting these phonesfor reuse and recycling.

Mixed PlasticsOne of the most significant impediments to recyclingcell phone plastics is the variety of plastics containedin the typical unit. Separating these materials is noteconomically feasible, and mixed plastics are notvery marketable. Plastics are also liable to becomecontaminated with metals during recycling, whichrenders them even less desirable. A further hindranceis that different brands of phone contain differentplastics. Standardizing and labeling the plastics usedwould make recycling easier and more cost-efficient,just as standardizing cell phone components wouldfacilitate refurbishment.

Toxic ContaminantsThe toxic materials contained in cell phones also hin-der recycling. Of particular concern are brominatedflame retardants, which are added to plastic compo-nents to reduce the risk of fire (plastics are highlyflammable). Flame retardants can contaminate recy-cled materials and make it very difficult to recycleplastics. Beryllium-copper, used in springs and con-tacts, creates another impediment to recycling,because of the dangers it poses to workers at recy-cling facilities. Beryllium dust can spread throughthe air when cell phone components are shredded orheated, putting workers at risk of chronic berylliumdisease, which can cause irreversible and sometimes

fatal scarring of the lungs.17 Cell phones manufac-tured with less toxic flame retardants and with copperinstead of beryllium-copper would be easier andsafer to recycle.

Cell Phone DesignHow a cell phone is assembled affects recycling effi-ciency in the same way that it affects refurbishment.Those that are easier to take apart — such as Nokiaphones with removable faceplates and fewer screws— significantly reduce the time, and therefore thecosts, involved in separating components and recy-cling materials.

BatteriesThe batteries contained in cell phones have to besorted before recycling can begin. This is a time-consuming process that could be streamlined, forexample, by color-coding batteries according to theirchemistry (i.e., lithium-ion, nickel-metal hydride,etc.). Standardizing batteries so the same type isused in cell phones of every brand would make recy-cling even more efficient.



5 Destination of Refurbished Cell Phones and Recyclable Materials

By refurbishing used cell phones, the collection pro-grams surveyed for this report extend the lifetime ofthese products and divert them from landfills andincinerators. Similarly, recycling phones that cannotbe refurbished keeps them out of disposal facilitiesand reduces the need for raw materials used to makenew products. These are important environmentalbenefits, but it is equally important that refurbishedphones and recycled materials be treated responsiblyfurther down the line. Thus, a truly effective collectionprogram will ensure that refurbished phones andphones sold for recycling are processed and ultimatelydisposed of in ways that protect the environment andhuman health. In particular, it is crucial that developingcountries, where stringent environmental and healthand safety laws are often lacking, do not becomedumping grounds for these products and the manytoxic substances they contain.

Refurbishers such as ReCellular, CollectiveGood,and Charitable Recycling sell most of the phonesthey refurbish to wireless carriers, retailers, aggre-gators, and other cell phone dealers. Approximatelytwo-thirds of these refurbished phones ultimatelywind up abroad (see box, page 37). Since 1999,approximately 65 percent of the phones ReCellularcollected through Donate a Phone and HopeLineand subsequently refurbished (or 49 percent of themore than 2.4 million phones it obtained throughthese programs overall) ended up abroad, many indeveloping countries. ReCellular’s phone salesbreak down is as follows:

• Approximately 44 percent of the phones it receivesfrom Donate a Phone and HopeLine and thendonates or resells are sold within the US, to buyersthat include retail stores and wireless carriers.

• Approximately 56 percent of the phones itreceives from Donate a Phone and HopeLine andthen donates or resells are sold overseas.

• Of the phones ReCellular sells in the US,approximately 20 percent are eventually resoldin foreign countries.

Refurbished Cell PhonesSold Abroad

Latin America is the largest market for refurbishedphones, especially Mexico, Argentina, Brazil,Colombia, and Venezuela. Large numbers of refur-bished phones are also sold in Eastern Europe, China,India, and Africa.

Refurbished phones are sold abroad principally foreconomic reasons: the phones are generally older oroutmoded models for which there is greater demandoutside of the US.* In the developing world, wherenew cell phones are not as affordable and widelyavailable as they are in the US (and in Europe, Japan,and Australia), refurbished phones provide an inex-pensive alternative for people who might not other-wise be able to afford them.

Several cell phone collection programs are alsoexplicitly committed to making cell phones morereadily available in the developing world. For exam-ple, one of CollectiveGood’s stated goals is to“bridge the digital divide by hooking people up withthe first cell phone they will ever own.”1 Similarly,Charitable Recycling has made a commitment to“bringing communication to an emerging country,perhaps for the first time.”2

Donate a Phone/HopeLine. Almost half the cellphones obtained through the Wireless Foundationand Verizon programs are sold abroad. ReCellular,which refurbishes phones for both Donate a Phoneand HopeLine, sells most of its refurbished phonesin Latin America, as well as in China and HongKong. (ReCellular sells approximately 65 percent

*For similar economic reasons, collected phones with outmodedtechnology are sometimes sold abroad for refurbishing. TheCharitable Recycling Program, for example, sends analog andother phones with little market value to refurbishers in Mexico andChina, where labor costs are much lower than in the US. RobertSullivan, President and Chief Executive Officer, The WirelessSource, November 20, 2002.

Destination of Refurbished Cell Phones and Recyclable Materials • 37

of its refurbished phones and those sold “as is” tooverseas customers.)5

CollectiveGood. According to the organization’spresident, CollectiveGood sells the majority of thephones it collects and refurbishes abroad, primarilyin Latin America and Eastern Europe. Very fewphones are sold in the US. Most of the phones sold inLatin America go to Mexico, as well as to Argentina,Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, and countries in theCaribbean. Some phones are also sold directly tobuyers in Panama, French Guinea, and Kenya.6

CollectiveGood collects large numbers of analogphones that it sends to Mexico, where the technologyis still widespread.7

Charitable Recycling. About 43 percent of thephones collected by Charitable Recycling are soldabroad. This program recycles about 38 percent ofthe phones it collects — somewhat more thanReCellular. Of the remaining 62 percent that arerefurbished, approximately 70 percent are soldabroad — slightly more than the proportion soldabroad by ReCellular.

What Happens toRefurbished Cell PhonesThat Are Sold Abroad?

Refurbished cell phones that are sold for export avoidbeing landfilled and incinerated in the US, but theywill still end up joining the waste stream unless reuseand recycling systems are available in the countrieswhere they are sold. Unfortunately, no infrastructureexists in the developing world to manage these prod-ucts responsibly at end of life. And neither ReCellularnor any of the collection programs or cell phone aggre-gators is promoting the development of reuse/refur-bishment systems overseas, or is working to establishsystems to collect used phones and send them back tothe US for refurbishing or recycling. Thus, the collec-tion programs as they currently exist are providing justa temporary solution to the problem of cell phonewaste in the US by shifting the problem abroad.

Although spokespeople for several collection pro-grams said that efforts might be made in the future to

How Refurbished Cell Phones Wind Up Abroad

ReCellular, CollectiveGood, and theCharitable Recycling Program sell refur-bished phones to cell phone aggregators,wireless providers, and other companies.The aggregators are generally US-basedcompanies that purchase cell phones andsell them in large blocks within the US andabroad. Neither ReCellular nor either of thetwo independent collection programswould disclose much information abouttheir relationship with aggregators, butspokespeople for ReCellular said theircompany works with Brightstar Corp., adistributor of wireless products and acces-sories abroad and in the US, among othercompanies. (Brightstar is a distributor ofMotorola products in Latin America.)

CollectiveGood and Charitable Recyclingchose to keep the names of their aggrega-tors confidential.

The Charitable Recycling Program sellsrefurbished phones to wireless providersin addition to aggregators. These are typi-cally offshore providers in Latin America,Eastern Europe, India, and Africa.3

ReCellular, CollectiveGood, and CharitableRecycling also sell phones to US compa-nies that distribute them mainly within theUS but also abroad. According toReCellular, approximately 20 percent of thephones it sells in the US are eventuallysold abroad by these US distributors.4


recover the cell phones they sell overseas, none couldprovide any concrete plans. The main reasons citedfor their reluctance were logistical and economic:limited access to foreign countries, prohibitive costs(especially shipping), and the lack of collection part-ners abroad.

Refurbished Cell PhonesDonated Within the US

Most of the cell phone collection programs surveyedfor this report donate some of the phones they collectand refurbish to people in need within the US. Themajority go to victims of domestic violence, but theWireless Foundation also gives phones to teachers,livery cab drivers, neighborhood watch programs,and the elderly. Distributing refurbished cell phonesfree of charge to people who need them is unques-tionably worthwhile, but it would also be helpful ifrecipients were encouraged to donate these phones intheir turn. However, there is no evidence that any ofthe collection programs are currently providing infor-mation along with the phones they donate on thevalue of reuse and recycling and the location of cellphone drop-off sites.

Cell Phones Sold forRecycling: The Potentialfor Overseas Dumping

According to the recent report Exporting Harm: TheHigh-Tech Trashing of Asia, 50 to 80 percent of theelectronic waste collected for recycling in the US —mostly TVs and computers, but also cell phones,stereos, and large household appliances — is export-ed to Asia, where labor is cheap and where environ-mental and health and safety laws are lax or not wellenforced. At recycling and disposal facilities inChina, India, and Pakistan, investigators found openburning of hazardous wastes, workers handling toxicmaterials without protection, and unrestricted dump-ing of toxic chemicals in waterways and elsewhere.8

At Guiyu, a village in China, they found soil contam-inated with lead and water that was undrinkablebecause of pollution from electronic waste; workers,

many of them children, were seen stripping wires andburning them in open pits to recover the copper.9

Although the US has signed the international BaselConvention, which aims to reduce transboundaryshipments of hazardous waste, it has not ratified thetreaty; thus, the export of electronic waste is not con-trolled in any way by the US.

As previously noted, the collection programs discussedin this report sell phones to recyclers that process thephones on their own or separate the components bymaterial and resell them for further processing. Theprograms claim to “attempt” to use recyclers whoseoperations are in compliance with federal, state, andlocal environmental regulations, and to ensure thattheir phones are not shipped to places like Guiyu.However, the number of players involved in thebuying and selling of cell phones makes it difficult totrack recyclables from individual programs to theirultimate destination. There is no question, however,but that large numbers of phones are being shippedoverseas for recycling. In fact, cell phones have beenfound in the piles of electronic waste discovered byinvestigators in China and elsewhere.

Charitable Recycling. This refurbisher sendsphones for recycling to Maxim Industries USA,which claims that it processes all materials at its ownor partner facilities “in an environmentally safe man-ner” and that none are sent overseas for processing ordisposed of in landfills.10 Charitable Recycling alsouses Great Lakes International Recycling. This com-pany sorts the cell phone components and sells thevarious materials to other companies for processing.Great Lakes ships 50 to 60 percent of the materials itreceives abroad; it was the only recycler investigatedfor this report that acknowledged sending some cellphone materials to China.11 Great Lakes toldINFORM that the company is looking into whathappens to the materials it sends overseas and howthey are disposed of.

CollectiveGood. Until recently, CollectiveGoodrelied mainly on Waste Management’s AssetRecovery Group for recycling, but it now uses GlobalInvestment Recovery Inc. This company sends themetals and plastics in cell phones to Europe, to besmelted for metals recovery and incinerated forenergy recovery. It claims that none of these materialsare disposed of in landfills.

US consumers retire over 100 million cell phonesevery year. Yet the programs examined for thisreport have together collected fewer than 2.5 millionused phones since 1999. Clearly, these programs areaddressing only a tiny portion of existing cell phonewaste. Rather than being recovered for reuse orrecycling, most used phones are being stored awayin closets and drawers or disposed of in landfills andincinerators. Meanwhile, cell phone use continuesto grow.

Although the success of existing cell phone collec-tion programs has so far been limited, such pro-grams do have potential as a means of addressingthis enormous and growing waste stream. To makea real difference, however, these programs mustrecover much larger quantities of used phones andensure that phones sent abroad are handled respon-sibly at end of life. Current programs can movecloser to these goals in three ways:

• Improving public awareness of and participationin the programs

• Working with cell phone manufacturers toredesign cell phones with reuse and recyclingin mind

• Taking the initiative to ensure that phones sentabroad, especially to countries in the develop-ing world, are either recovered for reuse andrecycling or are ultimately managed in waysthat keep toxic constituents out of landfills andincincerators.

Both industry and government have a role to playin reducing cell phone waste. Wireless providersand the collection programs themselves could domuch more to promote and facilitate cell phone col-lection and spread the word about the importanceof reuse and recycling. They could also find waysto reduce program expenses, which would makemore revenues available for promotion, advertis-ing, and recovery of phones sold abroad. Finally,innovative policy initiatives would be helpful inpreventing these products from entering landfillsand incinerators.

Increasing CollectionProgram Participation

INFORM’s research suggests that most US consumersare unaware of the cell phone collection programs thatare available, but once they learn of their existencemany are eager to participate. Increased promotionand advertising, more convenient donation systems,and improved customer incentives would all help toimprove participation in new and existing programs.

Promotion and Advertising

• Launch national advertising campaigns andexpand media exposure. So far, collection pro-gram advertising has mainly been at the locallevel. While local campaigns may be appropriatefor specific events and short-term collections, theyare inadequate for promoting phone drives atnationwide retail outlets and other ongoing collec-tions. National television, radio, and print cam-paigns would increase public awareness of theprograms available and highlight their value. TheCall to Protect program enjoyed its greatest suc-cess in 2000, after the program was mentioned inseveral nationally syndicated columns, includingDear Abby, Ann Landers, and Hints from Heloise.

• Promote collection aggressively inside the store.Programs that collect cell phones at retail outletscould do much more to attract customers’ attentionand encourage participation. In general, signs adver-tising the program should be posted throughout thestore and in store windows, collection receptaclesshould be larger, permanent, and more prominent,and employees should be able to answer customerquestions about the program with detailed informa-tion. Employees should also encourage every pur-chaser of a new phone (and of accessories such asheadsets and batteries) to return their phones forreuse and recycling rather than throw them away.

• Highlight the environmental and social bene-fits of cell phone donation. While most pro-gram websites provide basic information on the

Increasing Cell Phone Recovery and Improving the Programs • 39

6 Increasing Cell Phone Recoveryand Improving the Programs


goals and benefits of cell phone collection,advertisements and other promotional materials(such as information provided at participatingretail stores) tend to say very little about theproblem of cell phone waste, the environmentalbenefits of reusing phones, and the money thatcan be raised for charitable causes throughrefurbished phone sales. Clear and widespreadmessages about the crucial need for cell phonereuse and recycling would raise the public’sawareness of the importance of participating inthese programs.

• Include information on collection programs inadvertisements for service plans. Wirelessproviders such as Sprint and Verizon, and retailcompanies like RadioShack, advertise their plansand products on television and radio and innational newspapers and magazines. A referenceto each company’s collection program would con-tribute to increased participation.

• Enclose collection information with newphones and phone bills. A label affixed to newphones (or painted or etched onto them) wouldprovide a constant reminder to customers toreturn their used phones for refurbishment orrecycling.* The label could contain a toll-freetelephone number or web address where cus-tomers can locate the drop-off site nearest them.Such a service could be maintained by the wire-less industry or by individual collection pro-grams, which would place their own contactinformation on phones sold by affiliated retailers.For collection programs run by wirelessproviders such as Verizon and Sprint, programinformation could be included with monthlybilling statements.

• Publicize local events more intensively.Programs that run short-term collection drives(such as at football games) generally use fliersand ads in local newspapers to promote theirevents. INFORM’s research suggests that tele-

vision and radio advertising, promotion bycelebrities, and cooperation from the local com-munity can increase participation in theseevents considerably.

Convenience and Incentives

• Set up permanent collection receptacles atshopping malls, supermarkets, banks, andpost offices. After public awareness, conven-ience is probably the main prerequisite to a col-lection program’s success. Verizon has been ableto collect relatively large numbers of cell phonesbecause users can drop them off at any of thecompany’s 1200-plus retail stores. Still, peopledo not visit phone stores on a regular basis, andmore phones would be donated if receptacleswere consistently available at a variety of high-traffic locations within a community.

• Offer discounts and rebates on new phones(and other products) to customers returningused phones. Verizon’s experiences with suchpromotions resulted in a 15 to 20 percentincrease in the number of phones collected.These offers increase not only cell phone dona-tions but store traffic as well. They should beoffered on a permanent basis.

• Convert short- and long-term drives at retailstores to permanent collections. Verizon andSprint have had considerable success becausetheir collections are ongoing. With approximately7100 store locations nationwide, RadioShackcould recover much larger numbers of phonesthan it has so far by providing drop-off sites on apermanent basis.

• Hold more regular collection events. Whencell phone drives are held at the same time eachyear — during ball games or local events such asa street fair — people are more likely to getaccustomed to donating phones as a matter ofcourse.

• Provide free shipping for individual donations.CollectiveGood is currently the only program thatoffers free shipping for all donations from indi-viduals, including donations of a single phone. Ifthe other programs likewise offered prepaid ship-ping labels downloadable from their websites,they would likely succeed in collecting muchlarger numbers of phones.

*This approach is used on batteries manufactured by participantsin the take-back program run by the Rechargeable BatteryRecycling Corp. (RBRC). The RBRC’s battery recycling seal,printed on batteries and often on product packaging and instruc-tions, includes the word “recycle” and a toll-free help line. TheRBRC attributes many of the more than 250,000 inquiries itreceives each year to this product label. Ralph Millard, ExecutiveVice President, RBRC, May 29, 2003.

Reducing Program ExpensesThe collection programs surveyed for this report areall generating revenues from the sale of refurbishedphones and recyclables, but more than a third of thisincome generally goes to cover administrative costsand the costs of shipping and processing usedphones. However, some of these expenses, especiallythose associated with running collections and ship-ping the phones, could be reduced through arrange-ments with third parties.

• Increase the use of partnerships that makethird parties responsible for running phonedrives. Short- and long-term phone collections

conducted with businesses, educational institu-tions, fraternal organizations, and other commu-nity groups can reduce expenses because thepartner bears most of the responsibility for run-ning the drive and delivering phones to the pro-gram’s refurbisher. They can also recover largenumbers of phones in a relatively short period(Charitable Recycling now obtains up to 80 per-cent of its phones through such arrangements).Partnerships with large businesses and collegesand universities offer the added benefit of pro-viding a guaranteed source of used phones.

• Enter into cost-sharing arrangements withthird parties. In an effort to reduce its programcosts, Call to Protect explored an arrangementwhereby the US Postal Service would providefree shipping of phones collected through Call toProtect in exchange for advertising or other bene-fits. This idea was never implemented, but suchrelationships — which can provide the furtheradvantage of increased convenience for donors —are worth pursuing.

Policy Options

About 52 active or pending pieces of legislation in 25states concern electronic waste, mostly computers. USlegislators have started addressing this issue in partbecause of policy changes in Europe that mandate thereuse and recycling of electronic products and theelimination of many highly toxic chemicals from elec-tronic products distributed in Europe (see box). Thesepolicies will have a large impact on US manufacturers,and for this reason are starting to affect the policiesand practices of both government and business in thiscountry. For example, the European policies regardingelectronic waste were undoubtedly a factor in the USelectronic industry’s decision to join the NationalElectronics Product Stewardship Initiative (NEPSI),an ongoing dialogue among industry, government, andnongovernmental organizations whose goal is to reachagreement on how electronic equipment should bemanaged at end of life.

Although most state laws addressing the manage-ment of electronic waste focus on computers ratherthan wireless products, some state legislation — inMaine, New York, and Washington — addresses the


Europe’s WEEE and RoHS Directives

Compared to the US, the European Union(EU) is much further along in managingthe problems associated with electronicwaste. The Directive on Waste Electricaland Electronic Equipment (WEEE Directive)holds producers responsible for manag-ing their products after consumers discardthem and sets collection and reuse/recy-cling targets for all types of electrical andelectronic equipment. The reuse/recy-cling target for cell phones is 65 percentof all separately collected units by theend of 2006. The Directive on theRestriction of the Use of CertainHazardous Substances in Electrical andElectronic Equipment (RoHS Directive)requires the elimination, by 2006, of toxicsubstances such as mercury, lead, cadmi-um, hexavalent chromium, and certainbrominated flame retardants from electri-cal and electronic equipment. Cellphones contain many of these toxicchemicals, and manufacturers will haveto eliminate them from all phones soldand distributed in Europe. (For moreinformation on these directives, seeINFORM’s fact sheets “European UnionElectrical and Electronic ProductsDirectives,” http://www.informinc.org/fact_WEEEoverview.pdf, and “The WEEE andRoHS Directives: Highlights andAnalysis,” http://www.informinc.orgfact_WEEE.pdf.)

take-back of cell phones. In addition, at least oneUS senator (Rhode Island Democrat Jack Reed) isconsidering federal legislation that specificallydeals with discarded cell phones. Awareness of theproblem of wireless waste is growing (especiallysince the release in 2002 of INFORM’s report Wastein the Wireless World), and it is perhaps only a mat-ter of time before this large and toxic waste streamreceives the attention it deserves.

A number of policy initiatives at both the federal andstate levels could encourage more efficient cellphone collection programs.

• Impose deposits on cell phones. Depositrefunds, of perhaps $1 or more, would increasethe incentive for consumers to return their usedphones for reuse and recycling. In the US,deposits on beverage containers have been effec-tive in encouraging their return by consumers.Overall, bottle and can recovery rates in statesrequiring deposits are more than two and a halftimes higher than in states that do not.1 InMichigan, a high deposit fee of $.10 per bottlehas virtually eliminated beverage containerwaste.2

• Institute landfill bans on cell phones. While dif-ficult to enforce because of the small size of cellphones, state and local landfill bans could increasethe number of phones flowing into collection pro-grams. Legislation requiring municipalities tocreate systems for recovering, refurbishing, andrecycling used phones would make such bansmore effective. Revenues generated from the saleof recovered phones could help fund these munic-ipal programs.

• Require producer responsibility for discard-ed cell phones. Legislation requiring manufac-turers to create systems for recovering, refur-bishing, and recycling used phones would shiftthe responsibility for managing these products atend of life from government to the private sec-tor, creating incentives for producers to designphones that can be refurbished and recycledmore easily and economically. At present, nomanufacturer is directly involved in cell phonerefurbishment and recycling. Motorola partici-pates in the Call to Protect collection program,but the phones it recovers are sent to a third

party for processing. For this reason, the compa-ny has little incentive to come up with sustain-able cell phone designs.

• Impose reporting requirements and targets forcell phone collection and reuse/recycling.Mandated reporting on the collection and end useof refurbished phones and recyclable materialswould provide valuable information on programefficiency and the destination of cell phones thatwind up abroad. Target numbers for collection,refurbishing, and recycling would give the wire-less industry an incentive to improve programefficiency.

Product Redesign:Removing Impediments to Refurbishment andRecycling

Impediments to refurbishment and recycling compro-mise efficiency and increase costs. Removing theseproblems would make these processes more cost-effective, thereby giving the collection programs anincentive to collect more phones. The followingstrategies, discussed in greater detail in Chapter 4,deserve the attention of cell phone manufacturers:

• Increase durability. More durable components— especially plastic components — wouldreduce the number of parts that need to bereplaced during refurbishment.

• Facilitate disassembly. Cell phones that comeapart easily can be refurbished and recycled morequickly and inexpensively.

• Standardize design elements. Interchangeableadapters, batteries, and other accessories allowthe same components to be used in different cellphone makes and models. Similarly, standardiz-ing plastics and labeling them by type wouldmake recycling easier and more cost-efficient.

• Reduce toxic contaminants. Cell phones manu-factured without toxic chemicals would facilitaterecycling.

• Simplify software. Cell phones with less compli-cated internal software would allow refurbishersto reprogram the settings more easily.



• Identify battery types. Color-coding recharge-able batteries according to their chemistry wouldexpedite recycling.

Creating a Recovery andDisposal InfrastructureAbroad

The majority of refurbished cell phones are soldoverseas, many in developing countries where noinfrastructure is in place to deal with these productsafter users discard them. And none of the existingcollection programs is taking responsibility for thereuse, recycling, and disposal of phones that wind upabroad. As a result, the small fraction of discardedphones that these programs recover are merely beingshifted from the US to countries even less equippedto handle them responsibly at end of life. The prob-

lem of cell phones sent (or “dumped,” in the view ofmany advocates for change) to the developing worldis addressed by an initiative recently adopted by theBasel Convention, which concerns the transboundaryshipment of hazardous wastes (see box).

Recovery of refurbished phones. There are twoways that new and existing collection programscould take responsibility for refurbished cell phonessold abroad:

• Ensure that systems are established that enable thephones to be collected, reused, and recycled abroad.

• Ensure that systems are established that return thephones to the US for refurbishment and recycling.

Both options will require cooperation between thecollection programs and the wireless industry, espe-cially major phone manufacturers and serviceproviders that provide goods and services abroad. Asin the US, phone retailers and overseas providerscould provide collection information with new cellphones and act as collection points for used phones.Cell phone aggregators and distributors may alsohave a role to play, providing collection informationalong with refurbished units.

Revenues from the sale of refurbished cell phonescould be used to fund either of these systems. Theexisting collection programs are already generatingsignificant revenues from the relatively small numberof phones now being recovered. In fact, the WirelessFoundation is investigating other options for usingthese funds besides donations to charitable groups,such as increasing its marketing and promotionalefforts or paying the service provider costs fordonated phones. If these programs ultimately suc-ceed in collecting larger numbers of phones than theyhave so far, the extra revenues raised from salescould be used to cover the costs of a recovery systemfor cell phones sold abroad.

Recycling and waste disposal. There is no evidencethat any of the recyclers used by the programs sur-veyed for this report is shipping collected phones toplaces like Guiyu, in China, where unsafe handlingpractices and unrestricted dumping are putting humanbeings and the environment at risk. Nonetheless, it iscrucial that existing and future collection programs goout of their way to ensure that all phones sent over-

The Basel Convention

One of the major goals of the 1989 BaselConvention is preventing the dumping ofhazardous materials in developing coun-tries. In December 2002, the parties to theconvention adopted the Initiative for aSustainable Partnership on Environment-ally Sound Management of End-of-LifeMobile Phones. Among the goals of theinitiative are improving product steward-ship and identifying and promoting thebest practices for refurbishing, recycling,and disposing of cell phones. The BaselSecretariat, cell phone manufacturers,and the parties to the convention areworking together to develop a manage-ment system for cell phones that can bereplicated for other products. This initia-tive is expected to be the first in a seriesof agreements between various industrysectors and the Basel Convention.Although the US has not ratified theBasel Convention (it has signed it, how-ever), its participation in the cell phoneinitiative could have an effect on US policyand practices.


In April 2002, AT&T Wireless began a cell phonerecycling program that was available to employees,customers, and the general public. In April 2003, thecompany expanded this program, renaming it AT&TWireless Reuse & Recycle and providing for thedrop-off of cell phones, batteries, and accessories —regardless of brand, type, and condition — at allAT&T Wireless retail stores. AT&T Wirelessemployees can drop off their used phones at desig-nated workplace collection sites. Phones are refur-bished or recycled by Hobi International, Inc.(Batavia, IL, and Dallas, TX).

AT&T Wireless donates a portion of the phones itrefurbishes to groups that respond to emergency situ-ations, such as the American Red Cross and theFederal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).Funds from the sale of refurbished phones and recy-cled materials are donated to Keep AmericaBeautiful, a national nonprofit organization thatfocuses on community improvement and beautifica-tion. AT&T Wireless claims that it makes no profitfrom these sales.

From April 2002 through early 2003, AT&T Wirelesshad collected approximately 200,000 pounds of usedcell phones, batteries, and accessories.1 In August2002, the company donated 75 phones (equippedwith wireless service) to each of 25 Red Cross chap-ters across the US for use in disaster relief, for a totalof 1875 phones.2

Hobi International claims that it sends less than 3percent of the materials collected through AT&TWireless Reuse & Recycle to municipal landfills.The company sends phone batteries to INMETCO, arecycler affiliated with the Rechargeable BatteryRecycling Corp.

Information about AT&T Wireless Reuse & Recyclecan be found on the AT&T Wireless website(http://www.attws.com/our_company/cares/recycle_program.jhtml).

Addendum:AT&T Wireless Reuse & Recycle

seas are processed and disposed of responsibly. Thefirst step is to sell phones to reputable recyclers only.In addition, collection programs can:

• Require certificates of destruction/consumptionfor all shipments processed.

• Require verification of the ultimate destination ofall product shipments.

• Provide full public disclosure of the ultimate des-tination of all recycled materials.

Finally, overseas dumping by cell phone recyclerscan be avoided altogether if collection programsdevelop their own recycling systems, as CharitableRecycling is attempting to do.

Notes • 45

INTRODUCTION

1 Bette K. Fishbein, Waste in the Wireless World: TheChallenge of Cell Phones, INFORM, Inc., May 2002.INFORM originally estimated that over 130 millioncell phones would be retired annually in the US by2005. This number has been revised downwardbecause the growth in cell phone use has not been asrapid in the past several years as it was during the late1990s.

2 Ibid.

3 Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association,“CTIA’s Semi-Annual Wireless Industry Survey Results,June 1985-December 2002,” 2003, http://www.wow-com.com/images/survey/2003/752x571/SEMI-Annual_Table_Part_2_Slide_2.gif; for 2003 data, see the organiza-tion’s homepage, http://www.wow-com.com.

4 Fishbein, Waste in the Wireless World.

FINDINGS AND

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 Basel Action Network and Silicon Valley ToxicsCoalition, Exporting Harm: The High-Tech Trashingof Asia, February 25, 2002, http://www.svtc.org/cleancc/pubs/technotrash.pdf.

CHAPTER 1: CELL PHONE COLLEC-

TION PROGRAMS IN THE US

1 Information on Donate a Phone based on http://www.wirelessfoundation.org/DonateAPhone/index.cfm andpersonal communications with David Diggs, VicePresident and Executive Director, The WirelessFoundation.

2 David Diggs, January 15, 2003.

3 Ibid., November 19, 2002.

4 Personal communication, Jenifer Chambers, Directorof Charitable Collections Programs, ReCellular, Inc.,December 26, 2002.

5 Ibid.

6 Information on Call to Protect based on http://www.wirelessfoundation.org/CalltoProtect/faqCTP.cfm and

personal communications with Amanda Cienkus,Public Affairs Manager, Motorola, Inc., and DavidDiggs, Vice President and Executive Director, TheWireless Foundation.

7 Amanda Cienkus, January 21, 2003.

8 David Diggs, May 8, 2003. Money raised for charitiesthrough Call to Protect is placed in the WirelessFoundation’s Call to Protect Endowment.

9 Amanda Cienkus, December 11, 21, 2002.

10 Ibid., May 1, 2003.

11 Ibid., January 21, 2003.

12 Information on Sprint Project Connect based on http://www.sprint.com/community/communities_across/spc.html and personal communications with StephanieKelly, Group Manager Public Relations, Sprint PCS,and David Diggs, Vice President and ExecutiveDirector, The Wireless Foundation.

13 David Diggs, June 30, 2003.

14 Information on The Body Shop’s National Cell PhoneCollection Program based on http://www.usa.thebodyshop.com/web/tbsus/values_ase.jsp and personal com-munications with Kim Burrs, Director of Marketing,The Body Shop, and David Diggs, Vice President andExecutive Director, The Wireless Foundation.

15 David Diggs, May 22, 2003.

16 Information on RadioShack’s collection campaignsbased on personal communications with Chris Olivera,Director, Public Relations Program, RadioShack Corp.,and David Diggs, Vice President and ExecutiveDirector, The Wireless Foundation.

17 Chris Olivera, January 16, 2003.

18 David Diggs, June 16, 2003.

19 Information in this box based on personal communica-tions with Jenifer Chambers, Director of CharitableCollections Programs, ReCellular, Inc.

20 Information on HopeLine based on http://www.verizonwireless.com/jsp/aboutus/wireless_issues/hopeline_recycling.jsp and personal communications withAndrea Linskey, Executive Director, HopeLine.

21 Andrea Linskey, January 15, 2003.

22 Ibid., May 16, 2003. This figure includes the value of thefree airtime provided with the 10,000 donated phones.

Notes


23 Jenifer Chambers, January 21, 2003.

24 Information on CollectiveGood based on http://www.collectivegood.com/donate_phone.htm and personalcommunications with Seth Heine, President,CollectiveGood International.

25 Seth Heine, February 3, 2003.

26 Ibid., September 19, 2002.

27 Ibid., April 29, 2003.


29 Information on the Charitable Recycling Program basedon http://www.charitablerecycling.com/CR/home.aspand personal communications with Robert Sullivan,President and Chief Executive Officer, The WirelessSource.

30 Robert Sullivan, February 7, 2003.


32 Ibid., November 20, 2002.

33 Ibid., February 7, 2003

34 Ibid., November 20, 2002, January 14, 2003.

CHAPTER 2: COLLECTION

METHODS AND PROGRAM

PROMOTION

1 Personal communication, Stephanie Kelly, GroupManager Public Relations, Sprint PCS, January 14, 2003.

2 Personal communication, Kim Burrs, Director ofMarketing, The Body Shop, January 9, 2003.

3 Personal communication, Andrea Linskey, ExecutiveDirector, HopeLine, January 15, 2003.

4 Personal communication, Chris Olivera, Director, PublicRelations Program, RadioShack, January 16, 2003.

5 Andrea Linskey, May 12, 2003.

6 Bette K. Fishbein, Waste in the Wireless World TheProblem of Cell Phones, INFORM, Inc., 2002, 41.

7 Personal communication, David Sandberg, PublicRelations Manager, Verizon Wireless, May 16, 2003.

8 Verizon Wireless, “City of San Francisco Partners withVerizon Wireless to Curb Domestic Violence,” pressrelease, October 3, 2002, http://news.verizonwireless.com/news/2002/10/pr2002-10-03.html; “State of ColoradoPartners with Verizon Wireless to Curb DomesticViolence,” press release, October 30, 2002, http://news.verizonwireless.com/news/2002/10/pr2002-10-30a.html.

9 Andrea Linskey, June 18, 2003.

10 Ibid., May 12, 2003.

11 Stephanie Kelly, May 14, 2003.

12 Personal communication, Amanda Cienkus, PublicAffairs Manager, Motorola, Inc., April 29, 2003.

13 Ibid., May 1, 2003.

14 Andrea Linskey, May 12, 2003.


16 Personal communication, Robert Sullivan, Presidentand Chief Executive Officer, The Wireless Source,May 17, 2003.

17 Ibid.

18 Personal communication, Seth Heine, President,CollectiveGood International, May 21, 2003.

19 Chris Olivera, January 16, 2003.


21 Ibid., May 14, 2003.

22 Kim Burrs, May 1, 2003.

23 Amanda Cienkus, December 11, 2002.

24 Ibid.

25 Stephanie Kelly, January 14, June 26, 2003.

26 Andrea Linskey, November 13, 2002, June 27, 2003.

27 Amanda Cienkus, January 21, 2003.

28 Seth Heine, May 21, 2003.

29 Robert Sullivan, May 21, 2003.

30 Andrea Linskey, February 3, 2003.

31 Stephanie Kelly, June 30, 2003.


33 Personal communication, David Diggs, Vice Presidentand Executive Director, The Wireless Foundation,November 19, 2002.



36 Stephanie Kelly, November 11, 2002.

37 Ibid., May 9, 2003.


CHAPTER 3: PROGRAM

REVENUES, EXPENSES,

AND CHARITABLE DONATIONS

1 Personal communication, David Diggs, Vice Presidentand Executive Director, The Wireless Foundation,January 15, 2003.

2 Information in this box based on personal communica-tions with Jenifer Chambers, Director of CharitableCollections Programs, ReCellular, Inc., December 12,2002, June 30, 2003, and Andrea Linskey, ExecutiveDirector, HopeLine, July 2, 2003.

3 Andrea Linskey, May 16, 2003. This figure includesthe value of the free airtime provided with the 10,000donated phones.

4 Data in this paragraph based on personal communica-tions with Seth Heine, President, CollectiveGoodInternational, September 19, 2002, February 12, May14, 2003.

5 Data in this paragraph based on personal communica-tions with Robert Sullivan, President and ChiefExecutive Officer, The Wireless Source, November20, 2002, May 9, 2003.




9 Ibid.

10 Ibid., June 30, 2003.

11 Ibid., May 8, 2003.

12 Ibid., May 22, 2003.

13 Ibid., June 16, 2003.


15 Seth Heine, June 26, 2003.


17 Robert Sullivan, February 7, 2003.

18 Ibid., May 15, 2003.

CHAPTER 4: REFURBISHMENT

AND RECYCLING OF USED

CELL PHONES

1 Personal communication, Jenifer Chambers, Directorof Charitable Collections Program, ReCellular, Inc.,December 12, 2002.

2 Personal communication, Robert Sullivan, Presidentand Chief Executive Officer, The Wireless Source,November 20, 2002.

3 Personal communication, Seth Heine, President,CollectiveGood International, September 6, 2002.

4 Robert Sullivan, November 20, 2002.

5 Ibid.

6 Seth Heine, January 30, 2003.

7 Ibid.; Jenifer Chambers, January 15, 2003; RobertSullivan, March 23, 2003.

8 Jenifer Chambers, January 15, 2003.


10 Ibid., May 2, 2003.

11 According to Global Investment Recovery, metals aresent to European smelters because there are no sec-ondary copper refineries currently operating in theUS. David Ritter, President, Global InvestmentRecovery Inc., May 22, 2003.

12 Ibid.

13 Personal communication, Jared Wiseman, President,Maxim Industries USA, Inc., February 11, 2003.

14 Jenifer Chambers, May 20, 2003.

15 Seth Heine, April 3, 2003; Robert Sullivan, November20, 2002.

16 Personal communications, Tim Cimperman, SalesRepresentative, and Kenneth Money, President,INMETCO, May 28, 2003, July 2, 2003.

17 Bette K. Fishbein, Waste in the Wireless World: TheChallenge of Cell Phones, INFORM, Inc., 2002, 36.

CHAPTER 5: DESTINATION

OF REFURBISHED CELL PHONES

AND RECYCLABLE MATERIALS

1 Personal communication, Seth Heine, President,CollectiveGood International, September 6, 2002.

2 See http://www.charitablerecycling.com.

3 Personal communication, Robert Sullivan, Presidentand Chief Executive Officer, The Wireless Source,March 13, 2003.

4 Personal communication, Jenifer Chambers, Directorof Charitable Collections Program, ReCellular, Inc.,December 12, 2002.

5 Ibid.

6 Seth Heine, September 6, 2002.


8 Basel Action Network and Silicon Valley ToxicsCoalition, Exporting Harm: The High-Tech Trashing ofAsia, February 25, 2002, 3, http://www.svtc.org/cleancc/pubs/technotrash.pdf.

9 Ibid., 14.

Notes • 47

10 Personal communication, Jared Wiseman, President,Maxim Industries USA, Inc., February 11, 2003.

11 Personal communication, Peter Rosen, Sales Manager,Great Lakes Recycling, February 11, 2003.

CHAPTER 6: INCREASING

CELL PHONE RECOVERY AND

IMPROVING THE PROGRAMS

1 Businesses and Environmentalists Allied forRecycling (BEAR), “Understanding BeverageContainer Recovery: A Value Chain AssessmentPrepared for the Multi-Stakeholder RecoveryProject,” Global Green, January 16, 2002.

2 State Environmental Resource Center, “Issue:Deposit/Return Container Recycling,” http://www.serconline.org/bottlebill/stateactivity.html.

ADDENDUM: AT&T WIRELESS

REUSE & RECYCLE

1 Personal communication, Elizabeth McCleskey,Environmental Affairs Manager, AT&T Wireless, May23, June 4, 2003.

2 Personal communication, Sibyl Langley, PublicRelations Manager, AT&T Wireless, June 25, 2003.


Publications and Membership

Related Publications

Waste in the Wireless World: The Challenge of Cell PhonesBette K. Fishbein, 2002, 109 pp., $30

Leasing: A Step Toward Producer ResponsibilityBette Fishbein (INFORM), Lorraine S. McGarry (DukeUniversity, Nicholas School of the Environment), and Patricia S.Dillon (Tufts University, The Gordon Institute), 2000, 75 pp., $30

Extended Producer Responsibility: A Materials Policy for the 21st CenturyBette Fishbein (INFORM), John Ehrenfeld (MIT), and JohnYoung (Materials Efficiency Project), 2000, 290 pp., $30

Waste at Work: Prevention Strategies for the Bottom LineJohn Winter and Anne Marie Alonso, 1999, 105 pp., $30

Purchasing Strategies to Prevent Waste and Save MoneyNational Recycling Coalition and INFORM, 1999, 40 pp. For more information or to purchase a copy, please contact theNational Recycling Coalition at (703) 683-9025 x225, or visittheir website.

Membership

Individuals provide an important source of supportto INFORM. Membership starts at $35 and includesa one-year subscription to INFORM Reports,INFORM’s quarterly newsletter.

Additional support entitles the contributor tofurther benefits, including advance notice of anddiscounts on new INFORM publications.

For more information, please call INFORM at(212) 361-2400.

All contributions are tax-deductible.

Questions & Book Orders

Please visit our web site at www.informinc.org, orcall us at (212) 361-2400.

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Documents

All Cell Phones” · and other functions may make cell phones heavier, further increasing the total tonnage of waste generat-ed by these products. Toxicity of Cell Phone Waste As