Did you just get the new iPhone? Replace your outdated BlackBerry? Better question: did you recycle your old phone?

The Chicago Tribune’s Wailin Wong takes a look:

Tossed aside- what a waste
Cell phones are full of precious metals and reusable parts; the push is on to recycle them

By Wailin Wong | Chicago Tribune reporter
September 12, 2008

Pity that old cell phone languishing in a drawer. It’s missing out on a fascinating afterlife.

Most discarded phones in the U.S. are simply forgotten amid household clutter. A smaller number of handsets make it to a collection center for recycling or a reselling facility. For those phones, their fates can vary from being sold to consumers in developing countries to being melted down for metals like gold and copper.

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Read the rest of the story here…

For information on where you can donate your phone and other products at one-day drop-offs and long-term collection facilities, please visit the IL EPA Web site here.

There is additional information via the Chicago Recycling Coalition or the Collective Good (a partnership of Staples stores and The Sierra Club).

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 24th, 2008 at 1:27 pm and is filed under NewsBlog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.