"As you crawl through the tiny hole, using your arms and fingers to scratch, there's not enough space to dig properly and you get badly grazed all over. And then, when you do finally come back out with the cassiterite, the soldiers are waiting to grab it at gunpoint. Which means you have nothing to buy food with. So we're always hungry."

That's how Muhanga Kawaya, a miner in the remote northeastern province of North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), described his job to reporter Jonathan Miller of Britain's Channel 4 last year. Cassiterite, or tin oxide, is the most important source of the metallic element tin, and the DRC is home to fully one-third of the world's reserves. Some cassiterite miners work on sites operated directly by the country's military or other armed groups. Working in the same area are "artisanal" miners who are theoretically independent, like prospectors in America's Old West. But the cassiterite they extract is heavily taxed by the soldiers -- when it's not just stolen outright.

With a land area as vast as that of Texas, California, Montana, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and Colorado combined, the DRC has only 300 miles of paved roads. To reach one of the many cassiterite mines in the virtually roadless northeast, 1,000 miles from the national capital Kinshasa, Miller's team followed a 40-mile footpath that, he reported, was as "busy as a motorway. Four thousand porters ply this route carrying sacks of rock heavier than they are. Each of their 50 kilogram packs of cassiterite is worth $400 on the world market. Government soldiers often force porters at gunpoint to carry the rocks free of charge; if they're lucky, though, they can make up to $5 a day." (Watch Channel 4's gripping, award-winning report here.)

So, why should we care? Because without cassiterite rock and the other ores mined in the Congo we would be unable to manufacture the linchpins of our global "weightless economy" -- computers and telephones.

Greener phones, meaner mines

A horrific war among the DRC military and various rebel armies officially ended in 2003 after taking 3 million to 4 million lives. But fighting continued long after that in the northeast, fueled by mining profits. First-ever democratic national elections in July have set up an October runoff election in the DRC, along with great hope for the future. Meanwhile, disarmament and integration of the armies is being carried out. But soldiers frequently receive little or no pay, and that provides a strong incentive for them to squeeze what they can from the cassiterite business.

The majority of the ore moves through illicit channels across the northeastern border to Rwanda, enriching troops and middlemen along the way. The U.K.-based organization Global Witness has comprehensively documented the impact of resource extraction in the DRC in a 2005 report that described "killing, rape, torture, arbitrary arrests, intimidation, mutilation, and the destruction or pillage of private property" that soldiers used "to gain control either over resource-rich areas or over the ability to tax resources."

Since the July elections, says Carina Tertsakian of Global Witness, "labor conditions remain pretty much the same, especially in the informal sector." She says the DRC government now has slightly more control over the mines, "but that's not necessarily for the better." Despite pressure from the United Nations and European Union to pay members of its newly integrated armed forces more consistently, miners are being treated just as they were during the war.

In a cruel irony, Western efforts to make information-age products more environmentally friendly actually boosted incentives for violence and exploitation. In late 2002, the EU joined Japan in banning lead from the solder used in cell phones and other electronic goods. Traditional solder is an amalgam of 63 percent tin and 37 percent lead, but lead-free solder is composed almost 95 percent of tin. Partly in response to that new demand, the world price of tin shot up by almost 150 percent between August 2002 and May 2004, and has remained high since. As prices rose, fighting in the eastern DRC intensified.

Killer coltan

This wasn't the first time that fighters in DRC and Rwanda have reaped a mineral bonanza. Back in 2000, a spike in the price of coltan, an ore that is the source of the precious metal tantalum, spurred feverish mining, profiteering and suffering in the same area of northeast DRC where cassiterite is mined. The DRC controls an estimated 64 to 80 percent of world coltan reserves, and the windfall from mining those deposits funded a Rwanda-backed rebel army of as many as 40,000 soldiers during 2000-2002. The mining was also blamed for destroying habitat of the mountain gorilla; the gorilla population plunged by half in a national park where coltan was being mined.

Global demand for coltan increased with the growing use of tantalum in cell phones and other electronic devices. Whereas cassiterite is needed to make the products more eco-friendly, coltan is needed to make them more compact. Capacitors made with tantalum have an unmatched ability to hold high voltages at very high temperatures. Because of that, tantalum capacitors have been essential to the miniaturization of cell phones and other handheld wireless devices. At the time of the price spike, the No. 1 destination for the DRC's coltan exports was the United States. The prices of tantalum and its coltan ore have fallen from their 2000-2002 peak, but continued heavy demand from the electronics industry will keep their value high.

Getting a signal -- halfway to the moon

There's not much tin, and only a tiny amount of tantalum, in an individual cell phone; however, explosive growth in the wireless market has piled those metals up, milligram by milligram, into countless tons. In 2005, worldwide sales of mobile phones surpassed 200 million per quarter -- that means that factories are churning out 25 phones every second, around the clock. Customers typically discard and replace their phones every 18 months in the United States, and that cycle is said to be down to 12 months in Western Europe.

In the spring of 2001, some analysts were expressing doubts over a seemingly outlandish prediction that 1.7 billion people -- one out of every four on the planet -- would be wireless subscribers by 2006. As it turned out, the planet now has more than 2 billion subscribers, and the industry would like to sell a new phone to as many as of them as possible by the end of 2007.

Two billion of those little phones laid end-to-end would reach almost halfway to the moon. And that doesn't count the vast numbers already buried in landfills or abandoned in desk drawers.

As portable electronics acquire even more innovative features and (somehow) grow even smaller, their manufacture is sure to require even more exotic materials. And, more likely than not, those materials will come from some exotic location. Even before the handheld revolution, the United States was importing more than 70 percent of its tin, nickel, platinum and chromium, and more than 90 percent of its tantalum, aluminum ore, niobium and manganese. The EU and Japan are even more dependent on imports of those minerals, as well as silver, zinc, tungsten, gold, vanadium and copper.

Battery and assault

Cell phones, laptop computers and other portable electronics rely for their power on lithium ion batteries, which aren't just made of lithium. They contain copper and cobalt (often found together in a single ore called heterogenite) as well as nickel and iron, and generally have to be replaced every one to three years. (Up to 6 million will need to be replaced all at once with the recent recall of Dell and Apple laptop batteries). The DRC has 10 percent of the world's copper reserves and 30 to 40 percent of its cobalt, and with the prospect of a stable central government, the country's importance as a source of those materials for batteries and other uses is expected to grow.

The DRC's mines are in its southernmost province, Katanga, which went largely unscathed by the war that raged far to the north. Nevertheless, artisanal miners work under conditions that are only marginally better than those in the tin and coltan mines. They crawl through incredibly hot, cramped tunnels lit only by small flashlights or candles, using only shovels or their bare hands as tools. The BBC reported last year that the Ruashi mine employs 4,000 miners, some as young as 8 years old, who "dig and sieve from dawn to dusk."

Although transnational corporations are now rushing in to exploit the heterogenite deposits on an industrial scale, much of the ore is still being extracted by artisanal miners like those in Ruashi. Global Witness explained the danger in a July 2006 report:

Deaths usually occur when miners are digging holes -- sometimes 20 meters or deeper -- then digging horizontal corridors, known as kalolo or galleries, as they follow the cobalt or copper veins. The kalolo sometimes extend over stretches of more than 50 meters ... Those who remain at the top are usually the first to spot signs of crumbling earth and try to warn their colleagues of the danger -- often too late. As the mineshaft starts collapsing, they may attempt to rescue their colleagues trapped underneath. In some cases they succeed. In other cases, they have themselves been trapped by falling rocks, injured, and even killed in the process of trying to save their teammates.

There is an expectation in Katanga that after the October elections, foreign corporations will move in, putting an end to the more dangerous freelance mining. But the highly mechanized companies will be able to employ only a small fraction of the current artisanal miners, and, says Carina Tertsakian, there are already reports of clashes between corporate security guards and miners reluctant to surrender the sites they've been working.

Scary old phones

The level of exploitation continues to be affected much more by prices on the London Metal Exchange than by international efforts to protect workers or curb illicit trafficking of resources. Tertsakian says, "Organizations and journalists have created greater awareness, but I have to say we haven't seen that awareness translated into action." Even when Western manufacturers attempt to avoid buying Congolese minerals mined under deadly and exploitative conditions, they find it's not easy.

A great amount of the tin, coltan, copper and cobalt move out of the DRC via such roundabout and shadowy routes that it becomes almost impossible for a company at the end of the line to determine their origin. And human-rights-conscious consumers are even deeper in the dark. You can't boycott the assortment of metals in an electronic device the same way you can boycott a "conflict diamond" with a clearer history.

Demand for the minerals could be slashed if customers didn't replace their cell phones as often, and if when they did buy a new one, they no longer treated the old one as disposable. A myriad of for-profit and charitable organizations are now collecting unwanted cell phones for resale, donation or recycling. (Read the list of those who have taken a pledge of responsibility).

Yet the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) says that currently fewer than 1 percent of retired phones in this country are restored or recycled. With word spreading, that market may increase, and begin to affect the new phone market. As the title of an article in the current issue of Inc. magazine shows, manufacturers are already concerned: "Three Scary Words: 'Buy It Used'."

A 2004 California law requires sellers of cell phones to accept return of the instruments by their customers for reuse or recycling. It was passed in the face of the industry's intense nationwide efforts to defeat such mandatory take-back bills. Nationally, all four top wireless companies -- Cingular, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon -- have voluntary take-back programs; however, a "report card" issued in April by the Washington, D.C.-based environmental group Earthworks gave those programs an F.

Of the stores Earthworks visited, only 30 percent displayed information on drop-off and recycling, and only 50 percent of company representatives provided accurate information on the program. And companies could not verify that they were handling the returned phones according to best environmental and social practices, or that they weren't simply dumping many of them overseas.

Kimberlee Dinn of Earthworks says her group has seen some modest improvements in response to the report card. "There's a little more visibility of programs in the stores, more prominent mention on some of their websites. But not a single company has been able to provide us with statistics showing increased recycling of their phones."

To handle returned phones, all of the big four companies contract with ReCellular, Inc. of Dexter, Mich., which, according to Earthworks, is the only company to have been removed from the Electronics Recycler's Pledge of True Stewardship for noncompliance with its standards.

Dinn says California's mandatory recycling law has been a huge boon to ReCellular, which has grabbed 75 percent of the national market. CNN puts its market share somewhat lower, at 53 percent, and praises ReCellular for selling 55 to 60 percent of its still-functioning phones abroad, largely in poor countries where people can't afford new ones. That keeps waste out of U.S. landfills but also raises a question: If most used phones are being bought by people who would not have bought one otherwise, is reuse really cutting very deeply into demand for minerals, including those mined under conditions of near-slavery?

Tiny treasure trove

Once electronic goods go kaput (as they all eventually do), the metals they contain represent a potential "treasure trove," in the words of USGS. By their calculations, the 500 million phones now lying unused in American homes and businesses contain more than 17 million pounds of copper, 6 million ounces of silver, 600,000 ounces of gold, and 250,000 ounces of palladium.

The tin in the 110 pounds of cassiterite a hauler in Congo carries on his shoulders for 40 miles would make enough tiny drops of tin solder to manufacture tens of thousands of cell phones. The incentive to recycle that tin is boosted, of course, by the presence of precious metals lying next to it in the phone. But each device contains only a few cents' worth of any one metal, even the precious ones. And unlike aluminum cans, which are composed of a single, nearly pure metal, electronic goods don't surrender their diminutive, complex array of metals to the recycler without a struggle.

Among the charges that Earthworks levels at ReCellular has been that it ships nonusable phones to countries where hand labor for disassembly is cheap but environmental and workers' rights abuses are commonplace. Dinn says, "You hear horrible stories from Malaysia, Sudan and other countries -- no protective gear for workers handling the toxic materials in the phones, work being done by prisoners."

But Seth Heine, CEO of the phone recycling firm CollectiveGood in Tucker, Ga., says the metals in nonrepairable cell phones are well worth the costs of collection, shipping and processing, and that it can be done responsibly. Because CollectiveGood is "fixated on following absolutely the most environmentally sound procedures," Heine sends cell phones to an Antwerp, Belgium, company whose standards are "higher than anything in the U.S."

There, 17 different metals, including tin, copper, and cobalt, can be reclaimed. But says Heine, "No company's process at this point can reclaim tantalum. That's frustrating, considering its tragic history in the Congo."

On their backs

Reducing demand for coltan, cassiterite, heterogenite and other ores -- by reusing, recycling, and simply not buying so damn many electronic goods so often -- cannot by itself ensure safe jobs and living wages for people in the Congo or anywhere else. But a seemingly insatiable hunger for mineral resources can and does distort economies in some of the planet's most desperate locales. Relieving some of that distortion through reduced consumption at least gives nations and people a chance to build better lives independent of the ups and downs of world commodity exchanges.

Back in North Kivu last year, Channel 4's Jonathan Miller asked some of the people trudging along that muddy trail if they knew what the burdens they carried would be used for. He reported, "Not one of them knew their cassiterite was destined for the electronics industry in the rich world. One man claimed he knew: 'It goes to America,' he said, 'to rebuild the Twin Towers and the Pentagon.'" I don't know whether Miller told that man the real story -- that within only a year or two, much of the tin in the rocks on his shoulders, having served its purpose in the information economy, would end up lying unused in a dresser drawer or trash heap.

Stan Cox is a plant breeder and writer in Salina, Kan.

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Like many of us, Bill Messett had a cell-phone graveyard.

His old phones weren't actually dead, but he certainly wasn't using them. Each was tossed into a drawer, along with all its chargers and accessories, when he upgraded to the next model every year or two.

Messett, 38, had the vague idea that he would use the most recent discarded model as a backup in case he lost his current phone. The rest, he sensed, had some value, which made him reluctant to part with them.

"I'm kind of packratty in that sense," said Messett, a Miami insurance broker. "I don't like to throw anything away."

Messett found his solution this summer while surfing the Internet. He exchanged two of his newer model phones at RipMobile.com for about $50 in Circuit City gift certificates and donated the rest to RipMobile's affiliated site, CollectiveGood, in return for a small tax deduction.

What to do with old phones is no small issue. The United States alone has more than 200 million cell phone subscribers, and about 5 million of those change carriers each month, which usually means getting a new phone. Even when they don't change carriers, people often change phones to take advantage of improved technology, innovative features and changing fashions.

"The average user gets a new phone about every 18 months," said James Mosieur, CEO of CellForCash.com, "and they end up retiring the old one."

That's left the United States with hundreds of millions of used cell phones, only a fraction of which have been resold, recycled or reused. Californians, for example, throw away 44,000 cell phones every day.

"Eighty percent have not been repurposed," said Seth Heine, founder and CEO of CollectiveGood/RipMobile, who estimates there are 750 million used cell phones floating around the United States. "They literally go into people's drawers."

Such cell cemeteries are a problem for a number of reasons:

Environmental concerns. Eventually, owners may get fed up with the clutter and toss their wireless handsets into the nearest trash can -- the worst possible outcome.

Cell phones and chargers contain a variety of toxic materials that can poison the soil, water and air. Cell-phone manufacturers are trying to make new handsets more environmentally friendly, said Joe Farren, public affairs director for CTIA -- The Wireless Association, by phasing out the use of lead and cadmium. Still, you should assume that anything with a circuit board, like a phone or a computer, is a caldron of caustic stuff and try to keep it out of the landfill.

Security concerns. Today's phones can store all kinds of private data, from passwords to e-mails to that racy photo you snapped of your girlfriend. Anyone who gets his or hands on your old phone could potentially access this stuff.

Security is an issue for those who would sell or donate phones, too. Trust Digital, which provides mobile security software, recently said it gleaned data from nine of 10 smart phones and personal digital assistants the company purchased on eBay as an experiment. Among the 27,000 pages of data the company retrieved were e-mails between a married man and his girlfriend, details about pending corporate deals and bank account numbers and passwords, according to The Associated Press.

The kind of simple reset users often perform to erase data doesn't scrub the information from many devices' flash memory, the company said. The information can be reclaimed using software available on the Internet. A user needs to perform "an advanced hard reset," which is typically outlined in the phone's user manual, to permanently clear the memory.

Eroding value. The older the phone, the less it's typically worth. That means fewer shekels in your pocket if you eventually resell and less value to a charity if you decide to donate. If you want the biggest bang for your buck, you should part with an old phone as soon as you get the new one.

CellforCash.com pays anywhere from $5 to $160 for select models, Mosieur said, with the average seller receiving a check for $27. RipMobile.com typically offers more for similar models, with sellers receiving points good toward gift certificates at CircuitCity.com, Starbucks, MSN Music and Karmaloop clothing, among other vendors. Recently CellforCash.com offered $67 for a Treo 650, for example, while RipMobile.com offered $115. On eBay -- where about 130,000 used phones change hands each month -- a similar model recently went for just under $200.

Another option: Check with your carrier. Wireless providers may offer a discount on a new phone -- typically $25 or so -- when you trade in an older model.

Even if a handset has little cash value, it still can benefit charities. Several posters on the Your Money message board said they donated old phones to battered women's shelters or other nonprofits.

"I donate mine to a domestic violence program," wrote poster jlf. "The phones can be used for not only 911, but the women are also given minutes on the phones so that they can be used as a way to contact or be contacted by assistance agencies."

All four major wireless carriers have recycling programs, as do most sites that buy phones, and you can find other drop-off locations through WirelessRecycling.com. These options typically don't provide receipts for tax deductions, however. If that's important, look for sites like CollectiveGood, which recycles phones for charities and which offers tax documentation.

Before you pass on any cell phone, do the following:

• Discontinue your service. If you stayed with the same company or ported your phone number to a new provider, service to the old phone has almost certainly been disconnected. Otherwise, you should call your old provider and make sure service is turned off.
   
• Do a hard reset on your phone. This may be more complicated than the simple reset often used to erase data when you're having technical problems with the phone. For example, many Treo phones can be reset by pressing a small button on the back, but a hard reset requires pushing four buttons at once. Check your phone's user manual for the procedure. WirelessRecycling.com also offers instructions on its site for common models.
   
• Talk to your company: Some phones, such as the newest ones running Microsoft's mobile software, can be remotely wiped if the phone is lost or stolen. Other third-party software can delete a phone's information if a specially coded e-mail is delivered to it. Talk to your company about what technology it employs to protect its information and what is available.  

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CollectiveGood goes “carbon neutral” through wind power generated Green Tags:
January 3, 2006

CollectiveGood has once again taken the lead in our industry by becoming the first company to completely off-set our impact on the environment through our use of electricity and cars by buying Green Tags. These are CO2 credits generated through our purchase of enough wind power to offset our electrical use and automotive exhausts, making us “100% carbon neutral” - no one else in the wireless industry does this! It not only makes us cool, but also propels us to the leadership level of the EPA’s Green Power Leadership Club. In addition to supporting use of “renewable energy”, we also recycle the boxes, paper, and packaging that customers send in to us. Our staff is constantly looking for new ways to improve our recycling efforts to create less waste. Just another example of how we are dedicated to preserving the environment not just in theory, but also in actual daily practice.

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CollectiveGood honored with Innovative Social Entrepreneur Award by Small Business Development Council of Arlington, VA
Arlington, VA October, 28, 2005

CollectiveGood was honored by the SBDC of Arlington, VA with its first ever Innovative Social Entrepreneur award for CollectiveGood’s successful mobile phone recycling business. CollectiveGood worked closely with the SBDC during the earliest days of the company to develop socially responsible business practices and to weave them into the fabric of the company. While the “dot bomb” implosion was occurring, the Arlington SBDC encouraged and helped CollectiveGood develop and maintain socially responsible business practices in very difficult and uncertain economic times. More than five and a half years later, CollectiveGood and its new division RIPmobile.com are thriving, with eleven employees, thousands of drop off points supporting hundreds of charities across the country and keeping more than 100 tons of toxic waste out of the nation’s landfills. RIPmobile.com is the company’s newest division, encouraging young people to recycle their old cell phones by trading them for Cool Stuff. RIPmobile customers sell their old cell phones to RIPmobile, in return getting credits that they convert into CircuitCity.com e-gift certificates, MSN Music downloads, ringtones, clothes and other items. RIPmobile makes recycling feel as natural and easy as consuming – and as cool.

The Arlington Small Business Development Center (SBDC) was established in 1989 at the Arlington Campus of George Mason University. The center provides business information, technical assistance, management counseling and training to existing small businesses and new entrepreneurs. Any small business owner or person interested in starting a business may request assistance from the SBDC. http://www.arlingtonsbdc.org/index.htm

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EarthWorks and CollectiveGood Announce The "Recycle My Cell Phone Campaign"
Atlanta, April 20, 2005

This Earth Day, April 22, 2005, EarthWorks is launching the "Recycle My Cell Phone Campaign". The Campaign's goal is to collect 1 million cell phones in one year. All phones collected through CollectiveGood's recycling programs will count toward the 1 million phone goal beginning with the launch on Earth Day.

The Campaign's purpose is not only to raise awareness about the toxins in cell phones, pagers and PDAs but to divert these toxins from our landfills while reducing the need for open-pit mining which produces the gold, copper and other materials used in cell phone manufacturing. Because cell phones contain lead, mercury, cadmium and arsenic they are to be classified as hazardous waste by the EPA.

The Sumitomo Corporation of Japan, a world-wide trading company, estimated that:

• from 1 ton of old cell phones 230 grams of gold can be recovered;
• yet 1 ton of mining waste only generates 62 grams of gold

If the estimated 130 million cell phones discarded each year in the US were recycled, the phones would yield about 202,000 ounces of gold, keeping approximately 65,000 tons of toxic waste from landfills and incinerators.

EarthWorks, based in Washington, DC, is dedicated to protecting communities and the environment from the destructive impacts of mineral development around the world. The Recycle My Cell Phone Campaign is an innovative program to promote cell phone recycling and educate about the issues related to mining and toxic materials.

EarthWorks is inviting all of CollectiveGood's non-profit partners to learn more about the Campaign and to partner with them to promote the program. EarthWorks will provide press releases or educational materials. If your organization would like to be an active partner in the Recycle My Cell Phone Campaign, contact Kimberlee Dinn with EarthWorks at 202.887.1872 ext.
205 or e-mail her at kdinn@earthworksaction.org You can also visit their website www.earthworksaction.org

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CollectiveGood signs on as a Responsible E-Steward with Basel Action Network
Atlanta, March 28th, 2005

CollectiveGood has joined the Basel Action Network (BAN) to further our commitment to the environment by signing the Electronics Recycler’s Pledge of True Stewardship. BAN is a Seattle-based organization working to stop the trade of toxic materials around the world. Their standards of stewardship far exceed the current standards established by the U.S. EPA. CollectiveGood is proud to take a leadership role on these critical issues as a BAN E-Steward, and is notably the only mobile phone recycler in the entire Western Hemisphere performing at this highest standard of conduct.

By signing the pledge, CollectiveGood makes public our commitment to handle the hazardous waste that is generated by the electronics we collect in a responsible way. We pledge that no prison labor will be used to handle materials we collect and that hazardous e-waste will not be sent to developing countries for processing. We also commit to handling materials in the most environmentally responsible manner possible.

As BAN-qualified e-Stewards, we are recognized as meeting the highest standards for electronics recycling in the world, based on Environmental Management Systems, international legal codes and principles of environmental justice. Basel Action Network’s name comes from an international treaty known as the Basel Convention, signed in 1994 by a coalition of European countries, developed and developing countries, environmental groups. In that convention they created the Basel Ban which was a decision to end the most abusive forms of trading in hazardous waste. A year later the Basel Ban became a proposed amendment which when ratified by the requisite number of Parties will become international law.

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CollectiveGood also partners with eBay’s Rethink electronics recycling initiative
Atlanta, March 14th, 2005

CollectiveGood has joined eBay’s Rethink Initiative, comprised of leading companies and organizations involved in wireless telecommunications. This expansion marks one of the largest programs uniting wireless industry leaders in a collective effort to provide environmentally sound solutions to “e-waste,” unused and obsolete cell phones and other electronics.

“We see this as yet another way to reach out to consumers and make it as easy as possible for them to recycle their retired mobile phones” said Seth Heine, president of CollectiveGood. “Most people have drawers full of these devices, which almost always end up in landfills, a real problem because they are filled with toxic heavy metals”.

Among the fifty-six percent of American households that harbor unused working electronics, twenty-five percent currently have a working cell phone that is out of use, an ACNielsen International Research survey commissioned by eBay and the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition revealed. The average cell phone is replaced approximately every eighteen months.

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Recycling, legislation are among efforts to reduce phones dumped in landfills
By Jonathan Sidener
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
Union_Tribune, May 17, 2004

For most Americans, cell phones have become an indispensable part of modern life. But too often, old phones become disposable devices that end up as toxic additions to the nation's landfills.

Californians Against Waste, an environmental group, estimates state residents throw away an average of nearly 45,000 cell phones every day.

Nationwide, only about 1 percent of used phones are recycled or reused.

Rapidly changing cell-phone technology can make last year's phones seem obsolete if they lack a color screen, camera or the ability to download ring tones.

Number portability has compounded the problem.

Starting last fall, customers were allowed to switch phone companies and take their phone numbers with them. But the phones usually aren't transferable, and customers are required to buy new ones.

All too often, used cell phones end up shoved in a junk drawer or tossed in the trash.

While America lags behind much of the industrialized world in phone recycling, we trade in our phones quicker than citizens of most other nations. It all adds up to a huge, growing volume of toxic electronics in U.S. landfills.

Cell phones are full of pollutants such as lead (primarily from solder), arsenic and brominated flame retardants.

Older phones have NiCad batteries, which contain cadmium, a toxin and suspected carcinogen.

At the current rate, an estimated 130 million cell phones – or about 65,000 tons of waste – will end up in U.S. landfills or incinerators next year.

Some countries such as Australia and Switzerland have instituted programs to reclaim, reuse or recycle all cell phones.

In the United States, the federal government has not addressed the problem. Several states, including California, are taking steps to get the phones out of the waste stream.

The California Cell Phone Recycling Act would require all cell-phone retailers to collect and recycle used phones from consumers. The cost of recycling would be paid at the time of purchase so there is no disincentive to recycle.

The bill, now in the Assembly, also would require that phones sold in California meet the environmental requirements set by the European Union, which has ordered manufacturers to reduce the levels of lead in phones.

Recycling efforts
For years, environmentalists have recited the mantra: Reduce, reuse, recycle. When it comes to keeping cell phones out of landfills, there are proponents of all three approaches.

Reuse and recycling often go hand in hand. Manufacturers, cell-phone companies and independent recyclers are finding there is gold, literally and figuratively, in refurbishing working phones and recycling those that are beyond repair.

San Diego's Kyocera Wireless repairs defective phones and sells them as refurbished models.

The company also makes money from those that cannot be fixed. Last year, Kyocera took in $1.14 million from its phone recycling program.

Sprint collects phones from customers regardless of the manufacturer. Some are refurbished and the rest are recycled.

"We have drop-off boxes in every Sprint store," spokeswoman Vicky Soares said. "We donate the proceeds from the program to the Easter Seals."

Cell-phone service providers such as Sprint discourage or prohibit customers from reusing phones from other companies, even when the phones are capable of working on their networks. Sprint says competitors' phones haven't been tested on its network, so it can't guarantee the quality of service.

That attitude is beginning to change.

Companies such as AT&T, Cingular and Tracfone offer refurbished phones to their prepaid wireless customers. T-Mobile allows customers to reuse phones compatible with its GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) network.

Atlanta phone recycler Collective Good is one of several independent companies giving phones new life.

Collective Good works with about 300 charities in the United States and Canada, including the San Diego YWCA. The groups collect the phones and ship them to the recycler in return for a share of the profits.

"Working with charities made the most sense," Collective Good owner Seth Heine said. "Most people don't want to take the time to figure out what to do with an old phone, but most of those same people will say this is the right thing to do.

"It helps the charity. It helps the environment."

The company has collection boxes in all Staples stores. Proceeds from phones dropped off at Staples are split among the retailer, the recycling company and the Sierra Club.

Collective Good accepts all used cell phones. Heine said the company loses some money on about half of the phones it takes in because they are beyond repair.

It makes its money on the other half, which can be refurbished and resold, primarily in Latin America, where many people cannot afford new phones.

The phones that cannot be resold are sent to a recycler, where they are ground into small pieces. The recycler puts the scraps through several steps to reclaim valuable metals such as gold and hazardous metals such as lead, copper and mercury.

Heine's company, via its Web site, http://www.collectivegood.com/, will provide postage for anyone who wants to send in a phone.

Heine said his company is on pace to divert 500,000 to 1 million phones from the waste stream this year.

Phone charity
For years, domestic violence shelters have received unrequested donations of used cell phones.

It became something of an urban legend that there was a huge need for phones so that battered women could call 911 in an emergency. Well-intentioned people dropped off their phones at shelters around the country.

"Women's shelters had boxes of them," Heine said. "A lot of them ended up being thrown out. I've had people tell me they had so many boxes they were tripping over them. They didn't know what to do with them."

As a cell-phone recycling industry has grown around fund-raising partnerships, primarily with nonprofit groups, the unneeded phones have turned into a revenue source for many shelters.

"We get a significant number of donated phones," said Janet Sussman of the San Mateo domestic violence program CORA. "We do give some to our clients, but not very many. For the most part, we recycle them.

"We get enough to fill a box every month. It provides us with some revenue. It's something that we've come to count on in our annual budget."

Keeping the old one
Cell-phone sales continue to climb, making it unlikely that the number of used phones will decline.

But the Carlsbad-based Wireless Consumer Alliance says phone companies could slow the increase by making it easier for people to keep their phones when they switch carriers.

The organization filed a class-action lawsuit two years ago against the major cell-phone companies, saying consumers are unfairly forced to buy new phones in order to change carriers. The suit, in federal court in New York, is still pending.

"I talk to a lot of people who say they just want to make phone calls," alliance President Carl Hilliard said. "They don't want to get e-mail or download ringers or take photos. They don't need a new phone."

Jonathan Sidener: (619) 293-1239; jonathan.sidener@uniontrib.com

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Mobile phone should be classified as hazardous waste according to government-funded study.
Washington, March 08, 2004

A new government-funded study says mobile phones and other high-tech gear often release enough lead to be classified as hazardous waste under federal law, a finding that could force the Bush administration and states to consider changing disposal rules for millions of tons of electronic devices that otherwise end up in landfills and incinerators around the country.
click here for the complete article

The data from the study, led by University of Florida environmental engineering associate professor Tim Townsend, was presented in a draft report to the Environmental Protection Agency at a meeting last month in Chicago.

"The bottom line is that when we tested these devices, in many cases they met the EPA definition for regulated hazardous waste," said Townsend.

EPA funded the study.

Every year many millions of cell phones and personal computers are thrown out for various reasons. While industry and states have recycling programs for used phones, environmentalists claim such efforts recover only a small percentage of discarded wireless handsets.

In addition to lead, cell phones are said to include arsenic, cadmium, antimony, beryllium, copper, nickel and mercury. The fear is that as millions of cell phones are disposed of with other trash, the potential exists for their toxins to be released into the air and groundwater.

Townsend's project tested for eight hazardous metals: mercury, arsenic, cadmium, barium, silver, selenium, chromium and lead. The lead comes from solder that connects circuits. Townsend said only lead turned up as a problem, with 28 of 38 cell phones tested exceeding the EPA standard of five milligrams of lead per liter.

Last month, California State Assembly members Fran Pavley (D) and Christine Kehoe (D) introduced legislation to require mobile-phone retailers to start recycling programs. Under the bill, phone manufacturers would have to report to the California Integrated Waste Management Board on the hazardous materials contained in their products and on plans to phase them out. In addition, wireless firms would have to inform consumers on where and how to recycle cell phones.

New York and other states are pursuing similar legislation. Legislation in Congress would set a national policy for recycling PCs. Meantime, a number of countries in Europe and Asia have become active in combating electronic waste with new laws and various recycling initiatives. Not all old phones and e-waste get buried in American soil. Some high-tech waste is shipped overseas to poor nations, which attempt to salvage parts or refurbish products under unsupervised conditions-posing health and safety risks for individuals handling equipment.

Environmental groups have made elimination of e-waste a cause celebre.

The mobile-phone industry, which boasts 155 million subscribers today, insists voluntary recycling programs are working. The Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association says such programs benefit the environment, community groups and charitable organizations. Mandatory phone recycling would undercut those efforts, according to CTIA.

It is unclear what weight EPA will give to the University of Florida study.

"I can't say what now we will or will not do," said Marilyn Goode, an environment protection specialist at EPA.

Goode said EPA management will evaluate the study before any decisions are made.

Later this year, EPA plans to issue new rules encouraging-but not mandating-businesses to recycle computer monitors and TVs rather than disposing of them in landfills.

The process by which EPA and other government agencies use scientific data to craft regulations has become the subject of bitter dispute between the Bush administration and environmentalists.

President Bush's regulatory czar-John Graham of the Office of Management and Budget-has fashioned a proposal to shore up peer review of scientific studies available to government officials that write regulations. Critics suspect the Bush White House is trying to weaken safety, health and environmental regulations as a favor to businesses.

Others see merit in establishing a regime that helps to avoid conflicts of interest, manipulation of scientific data and vagaries of peer review that exist from one government agency to another.

Graham, who heads OMB's office of information and regulatory affairs, has been a lightning rod for controversy ever since joining the Bush team. Graham puts a lot of stock in weighing the relative costs and benefits of proposed and existing government regulations.

Graham, previously chief of the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis, is no stranger to the wireless industry. At the Harvard Center, he helped oversee a $25 million wireless industry-funded research program that he criticized heavily at its end. The study included some findings suggesting cell phones could pose a health risk to consumers. Researchers are trying to repeat the study to check the validity of the results.

In 2000, the Harvard Center issued a report downplaying the relative risks of talking on a cell phone while driving.

The study was underwritten by AT&T Wireless Services Inc. Some government and university studies have found cell-phone use behind the wheel impairs driver concentration and that hands-free headsets do not markedly improve driver safety.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Atlanta, March 22, 2004

CollectiveGood Teams With eBay To Recycle Cell Phones For Charity
eBay Users Can Donate or Sell Mobile Phones For Good Cause

CollectiveGood, the nation’s premier mobile phone recycling company, announced today they are teaming with eBay, the World’s Online Marketplace, to collect and resell mobile devices (cell/mobile phones, pagers and PDAs) from the eBay community to help benefit a range of charitable organizations.

As part of the program, CollectiveGood will recycle mobile devices and raise funds by encouraging eBay users to send their used equipment to CollectiveGood for refurbishment and potential resale on eBay. A portion of the profits generated through these sales will be given to selected charities, including Habitat for Humanity, Environmental Defense, and the American Humane Association, that take part in eBay Giving Works, a dedicated program for charity listings on eBay. Devices that cannot be resold will be recycled appropriately.

“This new program encourages the recycling of mobile devices known to contain toxic materials, and therefore ultimately helps protects the environment,” explained Seth Heine, president of CollectiveGood. “At the same time, it has the added benefit of raising money for worthy organizations.”

In addition, sellers can also opt to sell any unused mobile device on eBay through eBay Giving Works. Sellers list an item for sale on the site and determine the percentage of the proceeds they would like to donate to a specific authorized non-profit organization. At the close of a successful transaction, the funds raised from the listing will be sent directly from the buyer to the receiving non-profit.

“According to third-party data, there are over 500 million used cell phones in the U.S.,” said Sergio Monsalve, manager of eBay’s cell phone category. “The CollectiveGood and eBay Giving Works programs offer people a convenient and environmentally-conscious way to dispose of used mobile devices, while also helping out some exceptional charities.”

eBay’s cell phone category has 170,000 live listings at any given time, including phones and accessories. There are over 200 different phone models available on eBay, offering a one-stop-shop for people looking to purchase a new or used cell phone.
For more information about CollectiveGood’s eBay initiative, and for contact information, visit www.collectivegood.com/ebay or http://givingworks.ebay.com

About CollectiveGood
CollectiveGood is the nation’s premier mobile phone recycling company, creating award winning innovative programs designed to convert millions of idle, yet functional mobile phones back into reuse, usually in the developing world. CollectiveGood refurbishes and recycles mobile phones in an environmentally friendly manner. For more information, visit http://www.collectivegood.com, or call: 770-856-9021.

About eBay
eBay is The World’s Online Marketplace™. Founded in 1995, eBay created a powerful platform for the sale of goods and services by a passionate community of individuals and businesses. On any given day, there are millions of items across thousands of categories for sale on eBay. eBay enables trade on a local, national and international basis with customized sites in markets around the world. Through an array of services, such as its payment solution provider PayPal, eBay is enabling global e-commerce for an evergrowing online community.
 

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A last call for unwanted cell phones
By Henry Norr, San Francisco Chronicle

When I first heard that the average mobile phone sold in the United States is "retired" after only 18 months, I was aghast at the wanton waste. I would never be so profligate, I said to myself.   Then I did some quick figuring.   Turns out in this respect I'm very much an average American. I recently switched carriers for the third time since 1999, and with each switch I purchased a new phone.   As far as I know, my old units would still work fine -- or, more precisely, no worse than ever -- if activated. But all they're doing is taking up space on my shelves.  That's why a press release from something called CollectiveGood caught my eye when it showed up in my in-box a few weeks back.

This operation offers a much better solution for unwanted phones: It arranges for nonworking units and batteries to be safely recycled and gets working ones into the hands of people who can use them. And in the process it provides training and jobs for workers with disabilities, generates a little revenue for a nonprofit organization of your choosing, and gives you the opportunity to take a tax deduction.  With the number of subscribers to wireless services in this country up to 128 million (as of last year), a life cycle of a year and a half adds up to an awful lot of phones.

In fact, by 2005, 130 million mobile phones will go out of service annually in the United States, and the accumulated stockpile building up in our closets and drawers will have grown to more than 500 million, according to estimates in Bette K. Fishbein's "Waste in the Wireless World: The Challenge of Cell Phones," an exhaustive study of the problem published last June by Inform, a nonprofit environmental research organization with offices on -- of all places -- Wall Street. (You can download the whole 103-page opus, in chapters, from http://www.informinc.org/wirelesswaste.php.)

Inform spokesman Eric Most concedes that the study may not have taken full account of the current economic downturn. "But," he said, "even if we were off by half, it's still a huge problem."  By volume, it's actually not. If thrown in the trash, 130 million phones would be far less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the 240 million tons of municipal solid waste Americans are expected to generate in 2005.  But even if they're a drop in the bucket, it's a nasty drop. Like computers and other electronic devices, mobile phones contain a long list of toxic materials including lead, cadmium, beryllium and arsenic.  In addition, because the plastics used in phones are highly flammable, flame retardants are typically added to reduce the danger of combustion. Often they're of a type called brominated flame retardants, which are increasingly suspected of contributing to a variety of serious health problems, including cancer, neurological damage, immune-system problems and endocrine disruption.  (Production of one type of brominated chemical, called PBBs, has been banned in the United States since 1977, but another kind, called PBDEs, remains on the market. According to the Inform report, Swedish studies have documented a 50-fold increase in the concentration of PBDEs in human breast milk between 1972 and 1997. And a study released a year ago by the Canadian government recorded levels in the milk of North American women that were 40 times higher than the highest concentrations found in Sweden!)

Clearly, the best thing to do with materials like these is to get them out of our products. Fortunately, that may happen soon, thanks to a European Union directive requiring the elimination of lead, PBDEs and many other toxic materials from electronic products between 2006 and 2008. Since that will force the industry to come up with alternatives, and most global companies want to use the same technologies in every market, Americans will probably benefit from the Europeans' leadership.  Granted, the quantities of toxic materials in phones are dwarfed by those in PCs and, in the case of lead, TVs -- just 15,000 or 20,000 CRT displays contain as much lead as the 130 million phones the Inform study says we'll be retiring in three years.  But there's no good reason to add to the problem, even marginally, when alternatives exist. That brings us back to CollectiveGood.

DOING WELL BY DOING GOOD
The group has set up partnerships with some 150 nonprofit organizations, ranging from a rainforest-protection group called Adopt an Acre to the Women in Film and Video network. The most recent addition to the list -- the occasion for the press release I got -- is Working Assets, the San Francisco credit-card and phone company that donates a percentage of its revenue to groups fighting for peace, social justice and the environment.  Some of these partner organizations run their own old-phone collection drives, then ship what they've collected to CollectiveGood. Others just add links on the CollectiveGood Web site through which anyone can donate a phone in the group's name: You just select a group, print out a form, fill in your name and address and tape the sheet to the phone. Then you mail it, along with all accessories, to CollectiveGood's warehouse in Tucker, Ga., outside Atlanta.  (Some groups, including Working Assets, even post free shipping labels.)

As the donor, you get back an acknowledgment letter, a copy of which you can send to the Internal Revenue Service if you claim a deduction for donating the phone. (As usual with in-kind donations, it's up to you to set a reasonable valuation.)  For each phone it receives, CollectiveGood then donates money to the nonprofit in whose name it was collected. According to Seth Heine, the company's president, payments range from $1 to $15 per phone, depending on the make, model and condition.

Meanwhile, back in Georgia, CollectiveGood staffers sort out and refurbish the incoming phones. The group just announced plans to set up operations at an Atlanta-area facility run by Touch the Future, a nonprofit group that trains and hires workers with disabilities.  Ancient and unusable phones -- about 40 percent of the total received, according to Heine -- and dead batteries are recycled within the United States, in accordance with national and local safety standards. Working phones are sold to carriers in Latin America and the Caribbean who are looking for cheap handsets to offer to customers who can't afford even the least expensive new models. (U.S. phones generally can't be used anywhere else in the world because of differences in technical standards, but the rest of the Americas have apparently followed our crazy-quilt system.)

In the end, if you donate a phone, you're also making a contribution to the bottom line of several for-profit companies. That includes CollectiveGood itself: Heine told me by e-mail that "making profits is not the prime goal of the company -- conducting ourselves in a way that protects the environment . . . and being socially responsible are the driving forces behind the company's philosophy," but it does pocket a few dollars per phone. And the Latin American carriers probably make considerably more than that.

There's a sense, too, in which the plan adds up to exporting our toxic waste to less-developed countries. After all, those phones are not going to last forever, and they'll probably end up in landfills or, worse, incinerators.  The chances that they'll get to a safe recycling facility seem pretty slim.  Still, ecologists insist that reuse is the highest form of recycling. And when you add up all the other benefits of this program -- some money for the nonprofit of your choice, a few jobs for Georgia's disabled, safe recycling of some phones and some bargains for our friends south of the border -- it comes out to a pretty fair deal, at least in my book.

ALTERNATIVES
If you don't agree with me about that, but still want to do something constructive with your old phone(s), there are several alternatives that in one way or another promise benefits to good causes. Verizon Wireless and Sprint have such programs, and the Wireless Foundation, an offshoot of the cellular industry's trade association, runs several.  But if I have some qualms about CollectiveGood, I have even more about these carrier-sponsored efforts. For example, the Sprint program (developed in conjunction with the Wireless Foundation) resells the phones it collects. But according to its Web site, the charities it supports -- Easter Seals and the National Organization on Disability -- get only 35 percent of the resale value.

And while the Wireless Foundation calls its collection programs "Donate a Phone" and trumpets one program that provides phones to victims of domestic abuse, it has actually donated only 48,677 phones, according to its Web site, out of 1.4 million it has collected. (And most of those are programmed so they can be used only to call 911 and perhaps one other number.)  Of the rest, according to David Diggs, the foundation's executive director, about 30 percent are recycled and the rest are resold to cover costs, with any net proceeds split between charity and the foundation itself.

In fact, CollectiveGood's Heine charged that "the Wireless Foundation is deceiving well-intended Americans to participate in their programs, making millions of dollars in the process, and keeping the winnings for themselves."  Heine is in a sense a competitor, and therefore not an unbiased observer, but from what I can determine he may be on to something.

NEW HOMES FOR OLD PHONES

-- CollectiveGood (www.collectivegood.com)
Independent program pays nonprofits for each mobile phone collected, recycles unusable gear, sells working phones to Latin American carriers. Donors can choose among 150 nonprofits, many of which cover cost of shipping. .

-- Donate a Phone (www.donateaphone.com)
Family of programs -- some for individual donors, others for organizations and carriers -- managed by the CTIA Wireless Foundation, an arm of the cellular industry's trade association. Call to Protect program donates limited- function phones to victims of domestic violence. .

-- Sprint Project Connect (www.sprintpcs.com/projectconnect)
Program run by Wireless Foundation collects phones at Sprint PCS stores, recycles some and sells others, donates 35 percent of resale value to Easter Seals and the National Organization on Disability. .

-- Verizon Wireless HopeLine (www.verizonwireless.com/hopeline)
Company-run mail-in collection program recycles or sells phones, uses proceeds to purchase phones and donate airtime to victims of domestic violence through human-services and law-enforcement agencies. .

-- RadioShack Donate a Phone (www.radioshackcorporation.com/cr/support.shtml)
Program run by Wireless Foundation will collect phones at RadioShack stores through Dec. 31, and donate proceeds to an organization for college students called Students in Free Enterprise. .

Source: Chronicle research

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Recycling Phones to Charities, Not Landfills
By REUTERS
San Francisco, October 26, 2002

With customers methodically switching mobile services and upgrading to newer models, discarded cell phones are hitting incinerators and landfills in record numbers, contaminating the environment. But now users have the option of donating unwanted phones to non-profit groups, developing nations, or for recycling the components in environmentally safe ways.

``With a phone from last year donated to CARE (international aid organization) you can probably feed somebody for a month with the revenues generated,'' said Seth Heine, president of Atlanta-based CollectiveGood Inc., which runs a cell phone collection program at http://www.collectivegood.com. ``The simple act of recycling your cell phone can have profound ramifications,'' Heine said. ``The money can be used for immunization to keep a child from dying from a disease, or you can save 1,000 square-feet of rain forest forever.''

More than 128 million people in the United States use cell phones, typically replacing them after 18 months, according to a recent study by INFORM Inc., a New York-based environmental research organization. Phones weighing about 65,000 tons will be ``retired'' annually in the United States. 

TOXIC THREAT
Not only do those phones add to the volume of landfill waste but, experts say, the toxins they emit are particularly damaging to the environment. The phones contain persistent and bioaccumulative toxic chemicals, or PBTs, which have been associated with cancer and other reproductive, neurological and developmental disorders, INFORM said. The toxins do not degrade, but ``accumulate in the environment and can cause damage to the ecosystem,'' moving up the food chain as people eat plants, livestock and seafood, said Eric Most, director of INFORM's Solid Waste Prevention Program. Lead, cadmium, mercury and other toxic substances leak into groundwater supplies from landfills, while toxins from incinerated phones pollute the air and eventually come back down to earth in rainwater, he said.

The situation is so dire that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has given INFORM a grant to study cell phone collection and donation programs. To address the situation, the wireless industry started its own recycling effort through the Wireless Foundation, the non-profit arm of the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association trade group, which represents wireless phone manufacturers and carriers. The foundation, through its Donate a Phone program, http://www.donateaphone.com, collects used cell phones and resells them, sharing proceeds with charities and non-profit groups such as Goodwill, Boy Scouts and Habitat for Humanity. The Wireless Foundation also donates phones and air time to organizations that help victims of domestic violence, schools and neighborhood watch groups. Phones deemed unusable are recycled by ReCellular under strict EPA standards. 

WHERE TO DONATE PHONES
Founded in 2000, CollectiveGood is a private effort that allows people to recycle cell phones over the Internet. Donors have a choice of more than 120 organizations -- from environmental and children's medical groups to international aid and animal rights organizations. CollectiveGood purchases the phones, has them recycled in keeping with EPA standards, or refurbishes and resells them, mostly to Latin American countries, said Heine.

Last year's $200 cell phone, for example, could be purchased for about $35 by someone in a country where the cost of cell phones is not subsidized by the service providers as it is in the United States, he said. ``When you're a Guatemalan farmer and you make $600 a year, you'll never be able to buy a new mobile phone,'' Heine said. Working Assets and NPI wireless are signed up to recycle customer phones, and Heine said he is talking to other carriers as well as major retailers.

People can donate old cell phones at Radio Shack, The Body Shop and Sprint PCS (PCS.N) stores, said David Diggs, executive director of the Wireless Foundation. And, Motorola Inc.is collecting phones at certain NFL football games, he said. Sprint PCS donates part of its proceeds to the National Organization on Disability and Easter Seals. Cingular Wireless works with the Wireless Foundation and Verizon Communications (VZ.N) has a similar program called HopeLine. AT&T Wireless Services Inc. (AWE.N) is starting a program to donate proceeds from the sale of old phones to charity or donating phones themselves to officials and groups that respond to emergency situations, like the American Red Cross. Some carriers also offer trade-in and rebate programs at various times of the year.

A newly founded effort, http://www.trashphone.com, pays from $1 to $20 per phone, depending on the model, to organizations that want to raise funds, said Tim Leach, founder of the San Diego-based company. Local groups offer their own recycling programs, like the Animal Humane Association of New Mexico, the Cerebral Palsy organization of Colorado and Oxfam in the United Kingdom. 

NO STANDARDIZATION
As noble as recycling is, reducing the amount of waste should also be a goal, says INFORM. Most discarded cell phones are still usable, but people toss them out when they change service or providers introduce newer models, said Most. To minimize phone ``churn'' and reduce waste, cell phone companies should offer take-back plans and discounts on new phones in exchange for returned equipment, INFORM said. Vendors should also standardize their adapters, chargers and other components, the group said.
``We're hoping to get manufacturers to think about making phones more durable, easier to disassemble, easier to recycle and that contain less toxic materials,'' Most said. 

Despite industry arguments that standardization would hinder innovation, Heine of CollectiveGood points out that built-in obsolescence guarantees future sales. Cell phone manufacturers ``don't want to see people recycling mobile phones, and the government doesn't want to make them responsible for their waste,'' he said 

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50 LEADING NONPROFITS TO BENEFIT FROM RECYCLING MOBILE PHONES
October 23, 2002

 

Working Assets and CollectiveGood offer customers a way to donate their old phones to support their favorite causes.

Working Assets, a San Francisco-based phone, wireless, credit card and Internet company that donates a portion of customers’ charges to progressive nonprofits, is partnering with CollectiveGood to recycle customers’ unused mobile phones. Instead of throwing away old phones, customers can send them for free to CollectiveGood, a recycling phone company that has agreed to purchase them for reuse in the developing world. In addition, Working Assets will donate the proceeds from the used phone sales to the 50 nonprofits its customers already support by using Working Assets services. 

Working Assets generates millions of dollars to nonprofits through its customers’ charges, at no extra cost. Every year, 50 organizations working for peace, human rights, economic justice, education and the environment are selected and customers vote on how to distribute the funds. 

“We’re glad to give our customers another way to help causes they already support when they use Working Assets services, at no cost to them,” says Laura Scher, CEO of Working Assets, which also offers wireless phone service. She adds, “While many of us appreciate the convenience of wireless phones, nobody wants to contribute to landfill and industrial waste. This is an easy and free way to keep the phones in circulation while also helping worthy causes.” 

The program allows Working Assets customers, and the general public, to send in their old mobile phones for recycling at no cost. Participants can go to the CollectiveGood Web site and download free postage-paid mailing labels. Participants may be eligible for a tax deduction for the donated phones as well.  Click here for our full program information with Working Assets.


“Working Assets customers are typically environmentally and socially responsible, and this program is a perfect fit for them,” says Seth Heine, president of CollectiveGood. Heine adds, “It also rewards their efforts by funding organizations that help improve the world in countless ways.” 

Most recycled phones are reused in the developing world, where they provide affordable first-time communications for families and individuals, improving local economies and the quality of life by bridging the digital divide. Phones that cannot be put into reuse are recycled for their materials and components. Batteries and chargers are also accepted. Any portable mobile phone is accepted, excluding bag phones or vehicle-installed models. All donors should deactivate their phones with their wireless service provider before turning them in. Many components in mobile phones contain hazardous chemicals such as mercury, cadmium, nickel and gallium arsenide. CollectiveGood recycles the components that cannot be repaired or reused in compliance with EPA environmental protection procedures.

About Working Assets:
Working Assets is a long distance, wireless, credit card, Internet services and broadcasting company that was created to build a world that is more just, humane and environmentally sustainable. Since Working Assets was created in 1985, the company has raised $30 million by giving people easy, convenient ways to make a difference in the world through everyday acts like talking on the phone or making a credit card purchase. When customers use its services, Working Assets donates a portion of its revenue, at no extra cost to the customer, to nonprofit groups working for peace, human rights, equality, education and the environment. The company also serves as a strong political force, dedicated to giving its customers the opportunity to speak out on critical public issues. To learn more or to enroll in any of its services, visit www.WorkingAssets.com.

About CollectiveGood:
CollectiveGood is the nation’s premier mobile phone recycling company, seeking to convert millions of idle, yet functional mobile phones back into reuse in the developing world. CollectiveGood has partnerships with more than 100 charitable organizations, and refurbishes and recycles collected mobile phones in an environmentally friendly manner. These programs have generated tens of thousands of dollars for charities in the process. For more info, visit http://www.collectivegood.com or call 770-856-9021.

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Where Recycled Cell Phones Ring True
A burgeoning business is developing in emerging markets where wireless is nearly the only way to call -- if you can afford a handset

On a business trip to Brazil and Panama in 1999, Seth Heine, 34, was struck by an anomaly amid the widespread poverty he saw in both countries. In nations where yearly incomes averaged less than $4,000, ordinary people were lining up to buy cell phones at $250 to $350 each. Local retailers couldn't keep up with the demand. The reason: A dearth of landlines in both nations often made wireless the only way for those of modest means to stay in touch. So they dug deep and shelled out big bucks for the privilege. 

A light bulb went on in Heine's head. Upon returning to his Atlanta home, he started a company called CollectiveGood, which gathered used and discarded cell phones, either for sale abroad or for parts. Over the past 18 months, CollectiveGood has sold the majority of the 15,000 phones collected through his program to carriers Latin America and the Caribbean. 

MORE PHONES NEEDED.
The margins on such sales are small. After spending from $1 to $2 on sorting, refurbishing, and shipping, CollectiveGood typically sells to foreign service providers for about $20 per unit, -- making a $2-per-unit profit. The carriers then resell the phones to their customers for $25 to $30, Heine explains. That represents a 70% to 90% discount on the typical cost of a new cell phone. 

In January, Heine says his small business has turned profitable. The private company, which employs five people, is one of a growing handful of outfits in the U.S. and Europe trying to make it in the second-hand cell-phone biz. Says Heine: "We can't get enough phones to meet the demand." 

CollectiveGood still has plenty of inventory to tap. Of the estimated 250 million old phones lying in drawers and forgotten boxes in America's garages, only 1% get reused or recycled, estimates Heine. Today, 137 million U.S. residents have mobile service, according to the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association (CTIA), which collects and resells handsets through its Wireless Foundation's Donate a Phone program. Consumers switch to newer models every 18 months, on average -- and that replacement cycle will only get shorter, analysts predict. 

MANUFACTURERS' PERIL.
What benefits Heine, his competitors, and cell-phone users in less developed countries may not be so good for phone makers Nokia (NOK ) and Motorola (MOT ). The second-hand phone market offers meager margins, but 25% to 30% of subscribers in China start out with used handsets, estimates Bryan Prohm, an analyst at tech consultancy Gartner. In Latin America, that number also runs around 30%. 

As cell-phone service grows worldwide, the impact on manufacturers' revenues could soon increase, says Scott Searle, an analyst with SG Cowen Securities. He sees robust sales in Latin America, China, and Russia over the next few years for used phones, which could take an increasing chunk out of cell-phone makers' potential market. 

Outside of the U.S., cell-phone outfits rarely subsidize phone purchases. People with annual incomes as low as $600 can't afford to pay $100 to $200 for new models. But they can afford $10 to $25 for a used one. Most users in these regions don't have plans for cell phones. Instead, they buy prepaid time from local cell-phone service providers, usually at a cost of 10 cents to 25 cents a minute. 

NOKIA TESTS THE WATERS.
Service providers seem to see the potential. Executives at AT&T Wireless (AWE ) discovered it's cheap -- and often profitable -- for them to set up a recycling program, says Bob Robida, director of operations for AT&T Wireless' distribution center. Right now, most of the phones it collects get scrapped. But Verizon Wireless, part of Verizon (VZ ), has partnered with the largest second-hand cell-phone recycling company, ReCellular. And up to 70% of the phones collected by ReCellular are sold outside of the U.S., says Jenifer Chambers, strategic account manager at the company. 

The only players not in this game? Cell-phone manufacturers. Nokia, the No. 1 maker in the world, has been participating in a pilot program, set to end this fall, which tests different methods of collecting and recycling used Nokia phones in the U.S. Most manufacturers don't want to spoil the relationships with their main customers, the service providers, which are behind many of today's recycling and reuse programs. These usually benefit charities, such as organizations helping victims of domestic violence who may need to reach police in a hurry. That makes manufacturers reluctant to talk about the used-phone market. 

Given the small margins on sales of used phones, the big players would rather focus on more lucrative markets. Their strategy remains to roll out new models with must-have features not available on the older phones, says a Nokia spokesman. They are also partnering with manufacturers in countries such as China, where they aim to make phones that are less expensive, but nowhere near as cheap as used phones. That's what Nokia did earlier this year. Software giant Microsoft (MSFT ) also is stepping in to create cheaper phones. 

OPENING FOR LITTLE GUYS.
Still, these phones will likely be priced at around $100, Searle estimates -- quadruple the price of a used phone. Given the small profit margins, phone makers don't seem eager to scrape the bottom of the market. After all, Nokia likely won't be able to keep it 20%-plus margins if it moves into the below-$100 market, says A.G. Edwards analyst Greg Teets, who predicts: "They'll address the market when it's profitable to be there." 

For now, the second-hand phone business looks like an opportunity for smaller players. But as pressure on the margins of the larger cell-phone manufacturers increases -- and second-hand phones eat into potential market share -- a light bulb may go on for them, too. 

By Olga Kharif in Portland, Ore. 
Edited by Alex Salkever

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What You Do with an Old Phone
From the June 3, 2002 Issue of TIME Magazine

The trouble with mobile phones is that they become obsolete faster than last year's prom dress. There's no trade-in when you upgrade to a newer, sexier model. Maybe that's why, by the most recent estimate, there are more than 30 million cell phones sitting in closets, drawers and basements in the U.S. alone.
CollectiveGood note: You might be surprised to know that there are more than 250 million mobile phones (a whopping 800+% worse than reported!) sitting in drawers etc. waiting to poison our landfills with toxic materials such as Lead, Mercury, Cadmium and Gallium Arsenide. The math’s pretty simple: 136 million mobile phone users in the US (CTIA statistic) replacing their phones every year and a half = 90 million phones trashed this year, and the problem goes back at least a decade! Where did such an erroneous statistic as 30 million come from? The CTIA, the wireless industry’s governmental lobbying group, who are paid by manufacturers and carriers, have mislead the public, the government, and environmental groups about the size and scope of the problem they have created (and made billions in profits while doing so). It is estimated that there will be 500,000,000 mobile phones sitting in our shelves, drawers or landfills in the year 2005!! We stand ready to help avert this burgeoning environmental problem with our many mobile phone recycling programs, some of which even offer free shipping from your own home!

What are you supposed to do with these things? You could hand them down to a friend or relative. After all, a two-year-old digital cell phone still works, even if it doesn't offer the best reception or the latest services. Be careful, though. Handsets can be reactivated only by the carrier that provided them; with activation fees and other charges, it may be cheaper for your intended heir to accept the carrier's promotional deal for a new one. Sprint PCS believes in sharing: if you buy a new phone from the company, you can give your retired Sprint phone to a friend, and both of you will get a $30 service credit. Other carriers are not so proactive about resurrecting old hardware, and may even charge extra to do it.

If you want to avoid getting caught trying to palm off your old phone on your mom, you could donate it. You might even get a tax break. CollectiveGood (collectivegood.com), an independent phone-recycling program, lets you pick from a list of charities that includes the American Humane Association and the Children's National Medical Center and sends you a receipt for tax purposes. (Mind you, the deduction will probably not be much.)
CollectiveGood note: Actually, you determine the value of the tax-deduction for your phone based on its depreciation since purchase.

An easier way to donate is to drop your old phone off at your carrier's nearest retail store.
CollectiveGood note: It’s fairly obvious that the writer of the article was under the gun to make the print deadline, and didn’t research the facts in much detail before going to print. They failed to notice that CollectiveGood has an award-winning program that offers free shipping for recycled phones right from your computer via the Internet, so you never even have to leave home to recycle your phone for free. We strongly disagree that getting in your car, and driving around trying to find a mobile phone store that is interested in taking your old mobile phone is easier. Most stores do not want your old phone, and many will just throw it in the trash instead of recycling it anyway, so you waste time, gas money, and accomplish the opposite effect desired. That’s not really easier, is it?

The Wireless Foundation (wirelessfoundation.org) is an industry-wide project that provides phones to charities or recycles obsolete models and donates the proceeds. Call to Protect, one of the foundation's initiatives, gives phones to victims of domestic abuse; the Return Outreach Initiative lets charities turn in old phones in exchange for funding.
CollectiveGood note: It is worth noting that the Wireless Foundation (the “philanthropic arm” of the CTIA who are misleading the public about this problem in the first place) ROI program only pays charities $1 per phone collected, a small fraction of what CollectiveGood offers. What do they do with the millions of dollars they make in this process of “helping charities”? Good question…maybe there will be a story about that someday...

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CUTTING EDGE
Wireless Review, May 1, 2002

Charity begins at home. At least that's where Seth Heine first realized that the old but perfectly serviceable mobile handset he had stashed away in a drawer might still serve a purpose. Heine knew that about 85% of Latin America has no landline service, a problem he encountered firsthand while working in Brazil and Panama as a consultant for BellSouth. Conversely, more than 200 million cell phones are now littering landfills across the U.S., most still in good working condition but replaced in favor of newer, more advanced models.

“We live in a disposable mindset society,” Heine said. “People throw away all kinds of crap everyday. There are millions of phones sitting around. I just needed to figure out a simple mechanism for reuse.” Heine figured it out in May 2000 and founded CollectiveGood International, which recycles and repurposes discarded mobile phones for distribution across Latin America and the Caribbean, and offers U.S. consumers a socially and environmentally responsible method of disposing of unwanted wireless devices. CollectiveGood also raises funds for charities, including the Make-A-Wish Foundation and the American Humane Association (no doubt a favorite charity of Heine's dog, Dakotah, pictured here).

By visiting CollectiveGood's Web site, users can download a donation form, designate a charity and print mailing labels for the program's Ocala, Fla., refurbishment center. Donations are tax-deductible, as are shipping costs. After cleaning and refurbishment, the phones are sold to regional carriers and distributors, which make them available in underserved areas at roughly 25% of the cost of a new phone.

As of the end of 2001, CollectiveGood had collected about 12,000 phones. Heine is pleased by the project's progress, with one small caveat. “What's amazing is how very quickly people became savvy about phones and how quickly they knew that the brick phone is yesterday's news,” he said. “All of a sudden our business model is predicated on some guy running around a rain forest on the perimeter of Guatemala who's demanding a flip phone.”

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Phones in the Drawer or in the Trash, or to a Good Cause (Excerpts)
New York City, NY, February 28, 2002

Anyone who has upgraded to a new cell phone has grappled with the question of what to do with the old one. Stick it in a drawer somewhere? Toss it in the trash can? Every year in the United States, 40 million to 50 million mobile phones face one of these two fates, said Seth Heine, founder and president of CollectiveGood International, a company that sells used phones in Latin America. 
How many end up in the garbage is unclear. In Europe, where more research has been done on the subject, less than 15 percent have been thrown out, said Bette Fishbein, a program director and senior fellow for Inform, a nonprofit environmental organization in New York. 
Recycling sounds like the conscientious alternative. Several American recycling centers are dedicated to dismantling electronic equipment, including cell phones, and extracting the trace amounts of gold inside. But municipal recycling programs are not equipped to process buckets of cell phones the way they do aluminum cans...At the same time, however, the industry wants to deter the government from imposing recycling requirements on manufacturers. 
One option for consumers, according to industry experts and many environmentalists, is to donate old phones to people who can still use them...CollectiveGood (www.collectivegood.com) collects phones by mail and returns some of its revenue to charity of the donor's choice. "All they have to do is walk to their mailbox," Mr. Heine said, "and the problem is resolved." 
Article written by Lisa Guernsey appeared in the February 28th newspaper in the Circuits section, page D 7, and in the online Circuits section as well.

Note from CollectiveGood:  CollectiveGood focuses on the reuse of collected phones in Latin America, providing affordable mobile phones to those who cannot afford new ones.  It is our policy to send phones to partner companies who grind the phones up for the extrusion of precious metals only if the phone is broken, or cannot otherwise be put into reuse.  All of these partners have processes that meet or exceed EPA standards.

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COLLECTIVEGOOD HONORED FOR MOBILE PHONE RECYCLING SERVICE AT COMDEX FALL 2001 Atlanta, GA, November 26, 2001 CollectiveGood’s unique mobile phone recycling program was named as a Finalist in the Best Of COMDEX’s “Best Services Offering” category. A panel of award-winning editors from CIO, Computerworld, InfoWorld, Network World and PC World judged and honored the most innovative and noteworthy IT products introduced at COMDEX Fall 2001 - the global IT marketplace. CollectiveGood’s program impressed judges and attendees with its free but valuable service to mobile phone owners who have a spare, idle mobile phone sitting around their home or office. Learn more about our program with CARE The program is unique in the way that it offers mobile phone users a socially and environmentally responsible way to dispose of their old mobile phones while raising funds for charities. “This honor validates our program, and shows that the tens of millions of mobile phones that are thrown away each year could be recycled back into constructive reuse to the benefit of charities, the environment, and to help bridge the digital divide in the developing world” said Seth Heine, the company’s founder and president. The program offered at COMDEX was supported by Key3Media, the COMDEX show organizer, and creates additional funds for CARE, the international development and relief organization, essentially converting these devices into funds to support community-based programs that build a better future for families living in the world’s poorest countries. Other CollectiveGood programs have generated thousands of dollars benefiting numerous other charitable organizations. “Beyond the obvious benefits to consumers, there are other important considerations,” notes Heine. “These phones have the potential to have a profound positive impact on the lives of their new owners in the developing world. We focus our recycling efforts on reuse in Latin America, where 80% of the population has never owned a phone. These phones have the potential to bring those people and their families into the 21st century. Our recycling process improves the quality of life and economies in the developing world by providing affordable telecommunications.” About CollectiveGood: CollectiveGood is the nation’s premier mobile phone recycling company, seeking to convert millions of idle, yet functional mobile phones back into reuse in the developing world. CollectiveGood refurbishes and recycles mobile phones in an environmentally friendly manner at their refurbishment facility. For more information, visit http://www.collectivegood.com, or call tel: 770-856-9021. About CARE: CARE, one of the world’s largest international humanitarian organizations, helps communities achieve lasting solutions to poverty. In 2000, CARE programs benefited more than 27 million people in more than 60 countries. With more than 90 percent of CARE funds going directly to community-based programs, CARE is an efficient and effective vehicle of American generosity abroad. For more information about CARE, visit www.careusa.org or call 1-800-521-CARE. About Key3Media: COMDEX is a Key3Media event. Key3Media Group, Inc., is the world’s leading producer of information technology tradeshows and conferences, serving more than 6,000 exhibiting companies and 1.5 million attendees through 60 events in 18 countries. Key3Media’s products range from the IT industry’s largest exhibitions such as COMDEX and NetWorld+Interop to highly focused events featuring renowned educational programs, custom seminars and specialized vendor marketing programs. For more information about Key3Media, visit www.key3media.com About Computerworld: Based in Framingham, Mass., Computerworld, Inc. is a complete information services company for the IT Leader community, providing print and online publications, books, conferences and research services. The company's flagship weekly newspaper for IT Leaders has been recognized numerous times by Folio: Magazine and the Computer Press Association as the best computer newspaper. With a circulation of 250,000, Computerworld has a total audience of 935,200, according to IntelliQuest CIMS v.7.0. Back to top of page

 

 

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