Here’s a follow-up on what to do with your old cell phones:
Subject: INFO: Wipe out Wireless Waste
Keep Charleston Beautiful’s first annual Cell Phone Recycling drive, Wipe Out Wireless Waste:
Each year, Americans retire an estimated 130 million cell phones, of which only 10% are recycled or reused. These small electronic devices are extremely harmful to the environment because they contain lead, mercury, cadmium and arsenic. When not properly disposed of, these chemicals are absorbed by the soil and are washed into the ground water.
In order to reduce the amount of toxins entering our environment, Keep Charleston Beautiful (KCB) will be sponsoring a cell-phone recycling campaign during the month of January.
Bins are located at the following locations:
– Blackbaud
– Bank of America locations (all over Charleston)
– Earth Fare (Folly Rd)
– Benn and Jerry’s (Market)
– Rising High (E. Bay)
– Park Services (823 meeting St)
You can drop off:
– Cell Phones
– Chargers
– Phone accessories
Remember to:
– Remove your SIM card
– Clean phone memory
If you have any questions call Jenn Scales at 965-4082
***
Jennifer Scales
Coordinator, Clean City Clara Program
823 Meeting St.
Charleston, SC 29403
843.965.4082
I think this is an easy and effect way to help us recyle old phones.
Great way to help the environment. I have a account with Alltel and they have bins that let you dispose of cell phones. I’m sure other cell phone companies do the same.
This is a great idea, but when are you walking around these places with an old dead phone in your pocket? And certainly you cannot expect people to plan to take their phone and go to these bins. I’d propose a new system. They do this with car batteries: you put down a deposit when you buy the new battery, and you get it back when you exchange the old one back in. People are more inclined to do the little work if a reward is involved.
I think that it is a great idea but I do agree with what Logan said about the car batteries, and I think that we should do the same thing with cell phones. I would be more inclined to keep my phone even if its broken knowing that I put a deposit for it.
I agree that this is a great way to make a little bit of a difference but i do think if there was some sort of compensation people would be more willing to take their phones to these places rather than just throw them away.
I think it is a good idea but there are not enough places to drop your phone off. I think that the phone companies should create a plan to help fix this.
I think that the phone companies should help fix this problem.
This is a really good idea but I fear that people will not take the time to drop off the old phones. Like in a current post an incentive to bring in the phones seems like the only way to make this idea successful, maybe a discount on your new phone with proof that you recycled your old one.
I just recently read something about how harmful old cell phones and other technologies are so harmful for the environment. I had absolutely no idea before and I think it is great that a group in Charleston is making a conscious effort to decrease this pollution. I definitely agree with everyone else on the fact that there should be more of an incentive to recycle your phones. I mean, there are millions of people that know they should recycle or be more environmentally friendly, but only a small percentage do. Although pathetic, compensation definitely would make this recycling more effective.
While I think this is a great idea, recycling as a whole in the Charleston area is rather pathetic. The apartment complex where I live in Mt. Pleasant doesn’t even have recycling and hundreds of people live here. When I asked the reception why they don’t have recycling, they said it was too much effort. Instead, I save all of my paper and plastics and take them to work with me where they can be recycled. Recycling needs to be the law; it really is the only way to get arrogant people to put forth effort to preserve our earth. In England, where I am from, citizens are given containers for their recycling and fined if they do not use them accordingly. This ought to happen here.
This sounds like a very easy way to help recycle more of our old phones. When events are planned like this, we can make a better effort to recycle. More cities should do a similar thing.
Like everyone else says on this wall I think this is a great idea. I think that that the city of Charleston should host this more than just once a year and maybe spread the word to other universities and cities around the nation. – Erica Marvin
environmentally friendly way to recycle 🙂
I think that this is a really great idea that will hopefully continue to happen in Charleston in the years to come. I think it is also important to remember how harmful cell phone waste is and to not get caught up in getting the latest phone every year. In addition, I noticed today in the library that they have bags you can take, put your used printer cartridges in, and put in the mailbox to be recycled. This seems like a really convenient way to recycle, and I wonder if a system like this could be used for cell phone waste.