Recycling Cell Phones this Holiday Could Save Thousands in Energy Costs

Now is the time for people to recycle ailing cell phones, many of which will be replaced with new models this holiday season, according to ReCellular Inc.

According to The Use Less Stuff Report, recycling and reusing 50 million cell phones would save the equivalent of 37.5 million gallons of gasoline in materials and energy - enough to fuel 50,000 vehicles, averaging 20 mpg, for 15,000 miles per year.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, each wireless phone circuit board contains $0.63 of gold, platinum, silver, palladium, and copper (excluding the cost of recovering it).

Based on ReCellular's recycling experience, 50 million phone chargers would contain 1563 tons of copper, enough to replace the Statue of Liberty's copper shell 50 times over.

ReCellular estimates that there are approximately 500 million cell phones that are sitting around to be recycled if they are not merely discarded. Only about 2% of all unused cell phones have been recycled.

The company has over 50,000 collection sites including retail stores, charity groups, and grassroots organizations.

ReCellular's Zero Waste Policy leads to the recycling of every item that it gets. In addition to circuit boards, phone chargers, and plastic accessories, its ISO 140001 Certified recycling program reclaims nickel, iron, cadmium, and lead from battery packs; paper and cardboard from shipping materials; and the leather and vinyl materials from phone carrying cases.

Many cell phones also contain the rare element tantalum, which is a superconducting material that is used to coat capacitors so that cell phone batteries can be kept very small and light, and is why cell phones have become so much lighter and more compact yet so much more powerful over the last several years. This is a vitally important element to recover because of its scarcity.

"Almost every major wireless provider and retailer across the country now offers no-cost recycling programs. Alternatively, consumers can go to [our website] and redeem their old phones for Best Buy digital dollars -- putting some green in their pockets as well as benefiting the environment," says Chuck Newman, CEO and President of ReCellular.

The efforts to recycle cell phones not only save valuable materials from being wasted, they also keep landfills from piling up with materials that, as they break down with time and weathering, are harmful to the environment or human health, such as battery acid, mercury, and arsenic.

Experts caution that before turning in a cell phone to be recycled, one has to cancel one's service, remove all stored data, and remove the SIM card so that identity theft can't take place.

Some cell phone recycling programs will give money for a trade-in value or donate the money to a person's choice of charity.

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