Recycle cell phones? Absolutely!

Did you know that you can actually recycle your old or used cell phones? If you're like most people, you probably have an old cell phone or two hidden in a drawer somewhere. In a few months or years, you'll rediscover these hidden phones and having no further use to you, these old units will most likely end up in your garbage bin and thence, in your city's landfill.

But there's a better, more environmentally-responsible, even more profitable way to dispose of your old cell phones. Cell phone recycling is the answer.

There may be around 700 million used or old cell phones in America today, with approximately 125 million discarded cell phones added every year. According to a study done by a market intelligence firm iSuppli Corporation in 2007, 36.8 percent stored their cell phones in their drawers, 10.2 percent threw their cell phones away or declared these as lost or stolen, and only 9.4 percent recycled their used or old cell phones. In actual numbers, that's 10 million cell phones rotting away in our country's landfills and 37 million cell phones gathering dust in the drawers of America - and that's from 2007 alone!

Why should you recycle your cell phones?

Like other electronic wastes, cell phones in their circuit boards and batteries, contain such harmful heavy metals like lead, mercury, and cadmium. Dangerous chemicals like brominated flame retardants (BFRs) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) are also found in the plastic casing of most cell phones. According to Dr. Anne Marie Helmenstine, author and leading authority in biomedical sciences, lead has been found to cause development problems in children and diminishes brain functions even in adults. Cadmium exposure can lead to "liver and irreversible kidney problems (often fatal), respiratory and bone density problems. Compounds containing cadmium are also carcinogenic."

Most of our landfills today are scientifically designed to contain chemicals leaking from the solid waste, but will you gamble the health of your children and your's on the chance that cell phones and other electronic wastes we so carelessly throw to our landfills will not leach chemicals into our underground water systems? The likelihood of these dangerous and deadly chemicals seeping into our water systems is just too high. By dumping cell phones and other electronic wastes in our landfills, we are practically poisoning ourselves.

Is there money in cell phone recycling?

Yes. As a matter of fact, cell phone recycling can be quite lucrative. You can make money by selling your used or old cell phones to recycling and refurbishing companies like Pacebutler Corporation in Edmond, OK who will pay as much as $50 for each cell phone you turn in and will even pay for the shipping of packages containing at least 4 cell phones. The refurbishing company then turns around, and refurbishes these cell phones to be marketed to wholesale buyers abroad, bringing communication capability to people from developing countries in South America and other areas.

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