Flipswap helps you recycle your cell phone
By Laura Ambrosio
If your cell phone is dying or you’re thinking of upgrading, don’t throw it away (more than 125 million are tossed out in the U.S. every year, creating at least 65,000 tons of e-waste). Find it a second home instead. A new service makes it super easy. Called Flipswap, it lets you return your phone to a nearby mobile phone store or mail it in using pre-paid labels from Flipswap’s website.
How it works: Flipswap accepts cell phones of any make and condition (half a million were collected in 2008), appraises their value, and gives you that money or the option of donating it to one of 80 charities including the Arbor Day Foundation and Sierra Club. For every phone that’s recycled, Flipswap plants one tree in Louisiana or Nicaragua; last year, 30,000 trees were planted.
Where it goes: The phones themselves are cleared of all personal data, fixed if necessary, and either resold or donated to small businesses in South America through a microlending arrangement. Cell phones beyond repair are broken down so their parts can be reused or recycled in environmentally responsible facilities.
Read more Green Living articles.
How it works: Flipswap accepts cell phones of any make and condition (half a million were collected in 2008), appraises their value, and gives you that money or the option of donating it to one of 80 charities including the Arbor Day Foundation and Sierra Club. For every phone that’s recycled, Flipswap plants one tree in Louisiana or Nicaragua; last year, 30,000 trees were planted.
Where it goes: The phones themselves are cleared of all personal data, fixed if necessary, and either resold or donated to small businesses in South America through a microlending arrangement. Cell phones beyond repair are broken down so their parts can be reused or recycled in environmentally responsible facilities.
Read more Green Living articles.
