Why You Should Recycle Your Old Cell Phones

Can you picture what 200 million cell phones look like? According to INFORM, an independent research group, that's how many cell phones are being used by Americans today. Since the average American owns two cell phones, place your two units on a table in front of you. Now, try to imagine that sight multiplied one million times. It's an astonishing reality, isn't it? Can you imagine that many cell phones being junked in a landfill? That's just one reason why you should recycle your old cell phones.

Old cell phones contain dangerous lead, arsenic, antimony, mercury and cadmium. Mercury, for just one example, is listed on the Environmental Protection Agency's file of "persistent bioaccumulative toxins (PBTs)." PBT's are highly-toxic chemicals that build up in the bodies of humans and animals. Health hazards associated with PBT contamination include adverse affects on a body's reproductive system and nervous system. These poisonous chemicals have also been linked to cancer. According to the experts, cell phones add up to being almost 65,000 tons of poisonous pollutants annually. There's another reason why you should recycle your old cell phones.

Want a third reason? How about just to be a nice person and make a donation? Or you can actually sell your old cell phones and make a few bucks in the process. It's super easy to do. Visit the www.recyclewirelessphones.org website which is maintained by The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA). Here you'll find umpteen companies that either accept them as donations or pay cash for old cell phones.

Myself, I dug out a couple old cell phones I had lying around in a drawer. Some friends gave me a few phones they had too, so I ended up having five cell phones to recycle. The Sheriff's Department in my area accepts old cell phones so I took them there and dropped them off. The Sheriff's Department distributes these phones to people who can't afford cell phones, but who want them for emergency purposes. Thanks to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), even if a cell phone doesn't have an active account attached to it, you can still use it to call "911."