Forlorn that you weren’t one of the many college students able to participate in PlantMyPhone, a cell phone recycling program in which every donated phone went toward planting new trees? Beginning next Monday, April 5, through Sunday, April 11, all U.S. citizens will have the opportunity to chuck their tired cell phones courtesy of National Cell Phone Recycling Week.
Established by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the goal of National Cell Phone Recycling Week is to promote the importance of cell phone recycling, which goes toward saving energy and conserving natural resources. According to a press release issued by the EPA, “if Americans recycled the approximately 130 million cell phones that are disposed of annually, enough energy would be saved to power more than 24,000 homes in a year.” EPA and its Plug-In partners, such as Verizon Wireless, AT&T, and Best Buy, are sponsoring activities across the country to promote cell phone recycling.
The EPA states that only 10 percent of cell phones are recycled at present; most end up in the trash and, ultimately, one of many environmentally harmful landfills. Most cell phones are made from copper, plastics, and various precious metals. For every one million recycled phones, 75 pounds of gold, 772 pounds of silver, 33 pounds of palladium, and 35,274 pounds of copper are able to be recovered.
Enjoying EarthTechling? Vote for us as Best Sci-Tech Blog (scroll down to fourth category) in the TreeHugger Best of Green Awards! Thanks!