Recycle Your Old Cell Phones

Who doesn’t have an old cell phone or two lying around? Businesses in general like to purchase their employees the latest and greatest, and if you travel often or talk to clients, you probably have a business cell phone. Business or personal – it doesn’t matter – cell phones are cluttering or landfills.

And that’s a bad thing, since cell phone contain toxins.

However, at GreenPhone.com, they’ll pay you to recycle your old cell phone! As long as it works, it doesn’t matter how outdated your cell is – it has a value to GreenPhone.com. There are a few things to keep in mind.

• The cell phone has to actually work if you want to be paid for it. They’ll still recycle old cell phones that are broken, but if you want cash for it, it has to be able to power up for a test call.
• GreenPhone.com will quote you a price for your phone an accessories. That price is only good for 15 days, so if they receive the phone later than that, you might get a different price.
• The LCD screen and plastic case cannot be cracked or broken in any way.
• GreenPhone reserves the right to turn away phones that have excessive cosmetic flaws, like (according to the website) “damage from angry ferrets or other house pets.”
• The phone should come with a battery and a charger, although they may accept some without chargers.
• The phone must have a valid ESN or IMEI. Anything recorded as lost or stolen cannot be accepted for payment.
• You have to disable all service before sending it in!
• Sometimes they can’t accept certain phones because they have too many in stock.

Although there may seem to be a lot of rules, all of them are pretty much common sense. Your really old phone might be hard to sell on eBay, but I’m guessing that GreenPhone.com is partnering with some developing countries to provide like-new cell phones at affordable prices. It’s a win-win situation for everyone, including the environment!

Keep in mind that if you aren’t concerned about the money, you can also donate your old cell phone to a local battered women’s shelter. These cell phones are provided to women and children free of charge and while they often aren’t even turned on, all cell phones, as long as they are charged, can dial 911, even if they can’t dial anything else. That’s invaluable for people outrunning abusive partners.

Whatever you do, don’t throw those old phones away!

Picture via sxc.hu.