National Cell Phone Recycling Week
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that only about 10 percent of cell phones are recycled. When cell phones head to the landfill, so do precious metals, copper and plastics. Reusing or recycling these materials prevents air and water pollution, and also reduces emissions from manufacturing and processing. For every one million cell phones that are recycled, we can recover 75 pounds of gold, 772 pounds of silver, 33 pounds of palladium and more than 35,000 pounds of copper! Cell phones that are still in working order may be donated to charitable organizations who can reuse them.
Viewer Tip: April 5-11, 2010 is National Cell Phone Recycling Week. Americans dispose of about 130 million cell phones each year. If all of those phones were recycled, we’d save enough energy to power more than 24,000 homes in a year! EPA’ s Plug-in to eCycling program partners with major retailers around the country to collect and recycle electronics like cell phones. Visit http://www.epa.gov/osw/partnerships/plugin/partners.htm to find out where you can drop or mail your phone for recycling.
Season: Spring
(Source: “EPA Highlights Recycling Opportunities During National Cell Phone Recycling Week.” http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/bd4379a92ceceeac8525735900400c27/2f0711847e1f1c18852576f80053f5fd!OpenDocument)
