Garbage Gasification

Ok, I'll admit it, I am secretly a 12-year old boy. I was drawn to this article because of the word "gasification." Immature, yes, but also useful - due to my slightly warped sense of humor, I learned about a cool new technology: "The Prophet of Garbage" (found in Popular Science magazine) disusses an invention about the size of a two-car garage that basically vaporizes trash of all sorts to create energy.

According to the magazine, here's how it works:

Startech´s trash converter uses superheated plasma-an electrically conductive mass of charged particles (ions and electrons) generated from ordinary air-to reduce garbage to its molecular components. First the trash is fed into an auger that shreds it into small pieces. Then the mulch is delivered into the plasma chamber, where the superheated plasma converts it into two by-products. One is a syngas composed mostly of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, which is fed into the adjacent Starcell system to be converted into fuel. The other is molten glass that can be sold for use in household tiles or road asphalt.

Pretty cool technology!

Recycling your Bottles?

Poor naive me, I really thought that the majority of people were actually recycling, but a couple of incidents over the past few days have brought my naivety to my attention.

Incident #1: Office Conference Room – Trash can full of plastic cups and aluminum cans.
Incident #2: Office Cleaning Staff – dumping recycling into trash Incident #3: Friend Visiting my Home – “You’re really into green, I mean, you guys even recycle here.”

Then I read an article that confirmed my suspicions: “Bottles, Bottles, Everywhere…Can you give up bottled water?” This article addresses the myriad issues associated with drinking bottled water, including carbon footprint impacts, use of oil to generate bottles, and water use in bottle production. None of this was particularly surprising, as the war on plastic water bottles has resulted in a flood of information on all of the negative impacts (note: we should all be drinking tap water from reusable containers).

What did surprise me were the stats on recycling:

• Less than 20 percent of the 28 billion single-serving water bottles that Americans buy each year are recycled
• National recycling rate for all beverage containers is 33 percent
• In states with deposit systems, this jumps to 65-95 percent
• 11 states have deposit systems; only three of these include deposit requirements for non-carbonated beverages
• Non-carbonated beverages now comprise 27 percent of the market

I questioned whether these stats were legit or not, and did some internet research. This is what I discovered:

• 12% Plastic Water Bottle Recycling – includes hugely disturbing visual of what this means.
• 12% Plastic Water Bottle Recycling – gives some reasons as to why it’s so low, and what the impacts are.
• 60 M Plastic Water Bottles Discarded Daily
• 90% of Plastic Water Bottles End Up in Landfills in Some Countries

Check out the article as well as the other resources, and be sure to recycle both at work and in your home!

Image Source: www.greenlivingonline.com

I Want a Big Belly!

YES, they make solar compacting recycling stations too!

The BigBelly is a compacting trash receptacle that is completely self-powered. Instead of requiring a grid connection, BigBelly uses solar power for 100% of its energy needs. The unit takes up as much space as the "footprint" of an ordinary receptacle—but its capacity is five times greater. Increased capacity reduces collection trips and can cut fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions by 80%. BigBelly also provides cost efficiencies from labor savings, fuel cost and maintenance savings, as well as environmental benefits from reduced emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants.

What I really like about this is that it is a very people-friendly solar device - something everyone will connect with at some point. I have worked on some DC Parks and Recreation projects that would have greatlt benefitted from something like this. And I have heard rumors that these badboys have earned a LEED point in Innovation and Design. Not bad for the little trash compactor that could!

The UK - to have an eco-town makeover?

Today the UK government has revealed 15 locations which have been shortlisted as the first new towns in England in since the 1960s. 10 sites will be selected from this list to be built as new "eco-towns" by 2020 and will contribute to the government's plans to build 3 million new homes by the same year.

The eco-towns initiative has been designed to tackle the dual challenges of climate change and the need for more UK families to own their own home. However, they have come under fire on both these areas.

The UK government's sustainability agenda for eco-towns

Eco-towns are planned to be low-energy, carbon-neutral and built from recycled materials. Each development will be exemplary in one area of sustainability, such as energy production or waste disposal.

The argument against the sustainability agenda

The opposition has accused the government of "eco-spin rather than a genuine attempt to address the environmental nature of UK housing".

The UK government's house-building agenda for eco-towns

The UK is currently experiencing a housing shortage, especially in the affordable housing market. The largest eco-town will provide between 15,000 and 20,000 new homes and 30% to 40% of each eco-town will be allocated as affordable housing.

The argument against the house-building agenda

The opposition argue that because three-quarters of the housing we'll be living in by 2050 is already built, that unless you do something about the existing stock, putting up a few eco-towns amounts to a tiny fraction of the total housing we will require. There are also several shortlisted new towns that will require building on green field sites.

The opposition have also stressed the need to ensure inhabitants of new eco-towns do not have to commute in order to work. As if this happened, the sites would not be sustainable at all and would in fact give rise to extra carbon emissions in transportation. There are concerns among environmental campaigners that most of the proposed eco-towns will increase car pollution because they will not be big or diverse enough to sustain viable public transport.

For more information go to the UK Communities and Local Government Department website.

Map source: BBC News

No, it's not a concert, but Wal-Mart is finding Green Groupies

Wal-Mart is an interesting study in making business green. Since 2005, and, really, prior to that, Wal-Mart has stepped up its efforts to have a more positive impact on the world – environmentally, socially, through product lines and capital (go to Fortune.com for more information on how Wal-Mart got started on its green initiatives) .

While Wal-Mart’s leadership has jumped on board and is helping to lead the effort, the megachain has recognized that its efforts will be in vain if it does not move from the ground up and empower its employees to think about sustainability on an individual basis.

Thus, in 2007, Wal-Mart introduced a new initiative it calls the Personal Sustainability Practices (PSPs). The purpose of the voluntary program is to assist its associates with incorporating sustainable principles into their daily lives to improve their overall wellness, as well as the health of the environment. Associates develop their own lifestyle changes – everything ranging from eating organic food to exercising to organizing recycling efforts – that specifically works in their routine and will keep them motivated.

The only guides for developing a PSP are that it must: sustain the planet, make one happy, affect the community, become regular and continuous in daily life, and include visible action that can be shared with and seen by others.

Within months after roll-out, 50% of Wal-Mart associates has signed up for the project, much more than expected, with the hopes that all employees would become involved within two years. According to Act Now, the organization who helped construct the campaign, Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club employees have:

- Lost more than 60 tons of weight;
- Walked/biked/swam more than 380,000 miles
- Created over 16,000 “Idea Groups” to support one another around Personal Sustainability
- Quit or reduced smoking, with more than 10,000 Associates to date making a healthier change!
- Recycled more than 5 million pounds of aluminum, plastic, and paper

Some employees want to carve out more time from their busy schedules for family and friends, while others are advocating for healthier meal options in their stores (i.e. - Subway v. McDonald's).

Said one associate to the NY Times, “This is not about becoming a tree-hugger... It’s about making one little change."

Perhaps Wal-Mart's PSP is one drop in a large bucket of corporations encouraging lifestyle changes, but Wal-Mart has the capability to be one heckuva large drop.

The beginning of the end for free carrier bags?

I know charging for carrier bags has been happening for a long time in other countries (i think it's pretty standard in Australia for instance) but it is only now that Marks & Spencer, probably the biggest name on the UK high street and high-end food retailing, announced that it is going to roll-out a 5 pence charge for food carrier bags in all of its UK stores.

All profits generated from the charge will go to environmental charity Groundwork and be used to create or improve ‘greener living spaces’ such as parks, play areas and gardens in neighbourhoods around the UK. It is expected that around 40 neighbourhoods will benefit in the next twelve months.

Let's hope that good old M&S are leading the way for other high street retailers and supermarkets alike!

One positive step is that London Councils are currently pushing a Bill through Parliament that if legislated will ban outright the use of all throw-away bags in the capital. This follows a city-wide consultation with Londoners, in which 90 per cent of respondents called for action to be taken on plastic and other throw-away bags. It's often the way in the UK that a trend first occurs in London and then radiates out to the rest of the country; so I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that London sets a trend this time!

I'd love to hear how charging for carrier bags is progressing in the US and other parts of the world... let me know!

Click here for M&S's press release.

TerraCycle

Finally, a company that really gets what recycling is all about. TerraCycle is trying to eliminate the idea of waste completely. You provide them packaging... they turn around and put their products in your water bottles, drink pouches, yogurt containers, energy bar wrappers, etc. So what do they sell exactly? Mostly gardening products, bird food, fertilizer and the like. But don't worry, its all natural stuff.

The company's flagship product, TerraCycle Plant Food™, is an all-natural, all-organic, 'goof-proof' liquid plant food made from waste (worm poop) and packaged in waste (reused soda bottles)!

And they've really got their product located in lots of local stores so you can easily pick up worm poop on your way home from work. How convenient!

So many free newspapers... so much waste

This week in London a house was built from unwanted newspapers to raise awareness of the volume of waste created by free newspapers in the UK capital.

The Newspaper House is a public art installation by Sumer Erek making use of the free newspapers disposed of to 'grow' the house in one week! In London tube passengers alone discard approximately nine-and-a-half tonnes of freesheet newspapers a day. To raise awareness of this Londoners have been invited by the artist to insert their own personal news within the newspapers and add them to the house structure, with the aim of reconnecting them with the value of the newspapers.

For more information see the artist's website.

Also this week, over sixty volunteers armed with pink recycling bags split into teams to cover the busy parts of London and between them collected 800kg – the equivalent of around 8,000 free newspapers – over the space of a few hours. The bags were taken to Potters Field, just behind City Hall, and a Polaroid of the bags and the volunteers was hand-delivered to the Mayor of London. “The amount of newspapers we were able to collect was astounding – it was sometimes possible to fill an entire bag with the free papers in just one Underground train”, said one volunteer. “We collected as many papers as we could carry but we also knew that we could’ve been there all night”.

Project Freesheet is a web based campaign and the main thrust of the project is to highlight issues and concerns raised by the ever increasing amount of free literature (aka freesheets) now being handed out on the streets of cities around the world. Tube Lines reported in December that they are collecting 9.5t of free newspapers every day.

Recycled shoes?

I became a huge fan of Nike when I was in San Francisco and spent a long weekend walking about the city (over 40 miles on foot in 3.5 days!). My sneakers were old and by the end of the second day, my feet were killing me. I was staying very near Union Square and saw Niketown. I hobbled in there to buy some new kicks…and much to my surprise, they not only took my old nasty sneakers (not even Nikes), but they also gave me a discount for recycling them! I was thrilled and have become a loyal Nike customer.

I just found another reason to be loyal to Nike: the company has just released a new basketball shoe, the Nike Trash Talk made from manufacturing waste. This shoe was modeled after Steve Nash’s (of Phoenix Suns fame) shoe, the Nike Zoom BB II Low.

A few of the features of the Trash Talk include:

• The upper is pieced together from leather and synthetic leather waste from the factory
• The mid-sole uses scrap-ground foam from factory production
• The outsole uses environmentally-preferred rubber that reduces toxics and incorporates Nike Grind material from footwear outsole manufacturing waste.

For more information on Nike’s commitment to the environment and their Considered design ethos, check out their corporate social responsibility report on line.

Beer Bricks

Those beer companies have always had a knack for marketing. That's right, beer bottles that can be used as bricks. I found this on Frostfire Zoo. It only takes a 1,000 beer bottles to create a 10x10 structure. Ask a bunch of college buddies over and you've got the start of a new home! The story goes like this:

"Alfred Heineken had an epiphany while on a world tour of Heineken factories. When Heineken was on the Caribbean island of Curacao in 1960 he saw many bottles littering the beach because the island had no economic means of returning the bottles to the bottling plants from which they had come. He was also concerned with the lack of affordable building materials and the inadequate living conditions plaguing Curacao's lower-class. Envisioning a solution for these problems, he found a dutch architect John Habraken to design what he called 'a brick that holds beer.'"

What is Heineken up to today? Their 2006 Sustainability Report is very compelling and shows their well-rounded commitment to the environment. However, it lacks the creativity and chutzpah of their strategy from the 60s. Bring back those bricks!

Caffeine Fix!

I’m not a huge coffee drinker, but every once in a while I get in the mood for a “fancy coffee”…which usually results in a run to Starbucks, Dean & Deluca, or the coffee shop in the mall. Sometimes I remember to bring an old cup sleeve/coffee cozy. Sometimes I don’t. And since I’m not a regular coffee drinker, I don’t have a reusable travel mug.

Our office has a coffee machine and reusable mugs (yay on the cups), but I hesitate to use it. Why? Well, the coffee (even the cappuccino and hot cocoa options) is pretty bad. And it uses little individual metal/plastic packets for each cup. In the case of cappuccino, it takes two packets per cup. While these may be recyclable, they are not something we can throw in our standard mixed plastic/glass/metal recycling pick up…which means they go in the trash.

In an office of 140 people, this results in a lot of waste. Or trips to the “fancy coffee” store in the case of the coffee snobs – which also results in a lot of waste because many people don’t remember their reusable mugs.

What are the solutions? Well, a better coffee option at work might help. Here are a couple of suggestions:

• Get a barista machine and provide higher-end coffee
• Add a staffed barista kiosk available in the office part time
• Provide travel mugs and encourage employees to use them
• Provide exclusively organic free-trade coffee – locally grown if possible
• Brew large pots in a standard drip coffee maker and compost the grounds
• Use sugar and cream dispensers rather than individual packets

Would these be more sustainable options? Possibly, depending upon implementation. It’s definitely worth thinking about.

News of the Weird: Man Sued for Generating No Trash

I recently read an article on the Baltimore Examiner's website: City sues man for canceling trash service.

A quick synopsis: The homeowner in question cancelled his trash service because he no longer generates any measureable waste for collection:

• Paper, plastic, and metal are recycled
• Yard waste is mulched and used in the yard
• Food scraps are run through the garbage disposal
• Unwanted items are given away to friends or through Craigslist

The city requires weekly trash pickups as part of their municipal code, and as the homeowner does not have one scheduled, has opted to pursue legal action.

Granted, upon further investigation, it appears that there may be some extenuating circumstances related to the city's decision; however, this issue highlights the importance of policy in encouraging sustainable practices, whether in the work place or at home.

Creating Demand

I was travelling for business recently and struggled with living sustainably out of a hotel room – I had some successes and some failures. For example, I found a great way to combat purchasing bottled water – refills from the filtered water in the gym rather than the slightly rusty water from the hotel faucet.

One thing I was not able to do successfully was recycle…especially paper and plastic bottles. Every time I threw something recyclable away, I cringed! What did I do about this? Nothing. What should I have done? Talked to the hotel about instituting recycling programs: either in room, or at least in each elevator lobby/ice machine alcove.

It’s well known that the U.S. is a heavily consumer-driven society. If we the consumers make our demands known, soon enough, suppliers will begin to meet the demand. One way to do this is through corporate travel programs – while each individual user still has impact, a company with dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of employees may be able to make a bigger mark.

Some companies have corporate travel policies that support environmental/social responsibility:

• Preferred rental of hybrid automobiles
• Carbon offset purchasing
• Preference for hotels with green energy/green buildings

Not only should we ourselves create demand with our dollars (and words), but also, we need to encourage our companies to increase their dedication to sustainable travel initiatives.

The Bottled Water Alternative

"Americans send about 38 billion water bottles a year to landfills. Considering the 1.5 million barrels of oil needed to make those bottles, the environmental impact of plastic bottle waste is truly staggering." (from Filter for Good)

So filter your water! It saves money and the environment. The low tech route? A water filter on the faucet or a filter pitcher in the fridge. A slightly higher tech version? Try the Innowave Chiller (pictured.) It filters water three times over from your tap.

And take the pledge to reduce bottled water! Go to Filter for Good and find out ways to reduce bottle waste. You can also "map the pledge" to see how many people have pledged to save bottles in your city.

The Story of Stuff

I just chanced upon a fantastic short movie called The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard. You need about 20 minutes to view it, but it is really, really well done. Put on your earplugs and watch. It's one of the best explanations I've seen about the cycle of production and our role in it.

Produced by Free Range Studios.

Hosted by The Ethical Brand.

Europe: Distance to recycling facility is key to whether more environmentally friendly than landfill disposal

Researchers from Spain and Germany have analysed the environmental impact of the disposing of waste electrical appliances and concluded that, under current regulatory practices, the distance travelled to the recycling facility plays a key role in determining whether recycling is more environmentally-friendly than landfill disposal.

There is a growing recognition of the need for a more sustainable approach to consumption of goods, especially in the electronics industry where short product life-cycles and rapidly advancing technology lead to huge volumes of relatively new goods being discarded.

Although some equipment is sent for recycling, the annual volume of waste generated is increasing between 3 and 5% in Europe alone. The current annual estimate is 6.5 million tonnes, and this is expected to rise to 12 million tonnes by 2015, equivalent to 14 kg per person per year. The majority of these goods find their way to landfill sites, but the waste of potentially recyclable materials and the increasing scarcity of landfill sites have led to a shift in placing greater emphasis on recycling.

The study makes recommendations on the maximum travel distances to collect and dispose of electrical waste to avoid negative environmental impacts. The authors also advise authorities and manufacturers to look for alternatives to recycling, such as charitable donations or resale. In addition, the findings may help inform manufacturers, who are now required to take back all equipment after use for subsequent treatment, when designing recycling networks.

The researchers looked at the composition of four types of product: washing machines, refrigerators, televisions and personal computers, and focused on the disposal phase of their life-cycle. They compared disposal using landfill sites with typical separating and recycling practices.

The difference in environmental impact between the two possible end-of-life scenarios was measured using categories such as the production of winter smog, the production of acid rain and the use of fossil fuels. The range of distances travelled to collect and dispose of waste, and type of vehicle used were also considered. Having combined the impact of these factors, the researchers calculated break even points for distances travelled to collect and dispose of appliances.

The break-even point for washing machines is 113 km; for refrigerators 262 km; for television sets 363.5 km, and for personal computers 345.5 km. For distances above these, the negative impacts outweigh the environmental benefits. In all cases, transport was less polluting using a lorry than a van.

Source: Y. Barba-Gutiérrez, B. Adenso-Díaz and M. Hopp (2008) "An analysis of some environmental consequences of European electrical and electronic waste regulation Resources, Conservation and Recycling (Elsevier), 52(3). Contact: http://www.blogger.com/adenso@epsig.uniovi.es

Could I Get You Something To Drink?

While reading my favorite bike rag there was an advertisement for a cycling event that perplexes me, the Redlands Cycling Classic, http://www.redlandsclassic.com/. It is a road / mountain / kids / track /time trial cycling race / event. One cool thing is that often there are not enough commercial hotels to go around, so the teams stay at host family houses to lessen the demand on local hotels. Hmmm [Could be another blog, yes?]

Anyway getting back to the point, the last page of the add was for a small brewing company that I like, Sierra Nevada. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that they take their impact on the food cycle very seriously. They create their electrical power from a fuel cell, they recycle their industrial waste, recover heat from their kettles and CO2 from their fermentation process, not to mention that their waste is used as feed for live stock. Check them out at http://www.sierranevada.com/environment.html.

If nothing else, their Pale Ale is delicious and they are a relatively small business. So enjoy one the next time you are out.

Facts and Figures from the Green Workplace Survey

If you get Google Alerts on the green workplace you will have probably already seen this story, but in case you haven't:

Today the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) released the findings of their Green Workplace Survey. The survey found that 50 percent of surveyed (US) organizations have a formal or informal environmental responsibility policy, but 43 percent have no such policy and no plans to implement one within the next 12 months.

Key findings of the survey were:

• Companies that implement environmental responsibility programs cite improved employee morale (44 percent), increased employee loyalty (16 percent) and a stronger public image for the company (42 percent) as top benefits. They also report increased consumer/customer confidence/choice (20 percent) and a positive financial bottom line (19 percent) as a result of the organization's environmental responsible program.


• The most common barrier to creating an environmental program is implementation cost (85 percent) followed by maintenance cost (74 percent). Other barriers include lack of management support (43 percent), lack of employee support (25 percent), and concern for workplace inefficiency (20 percent).


• Nearly three out of four employees from companies without environmental programs say they want their employers to "go green." Seventy-three (73) percent of surveyed employees in companies without an environmental responsibility policy thought it was very or somewhat important that their organization develop an environmental responsibility policy.


• The majority of "green" programs are created by a senior management team (32 percent) and roughly the same number (31 percent) are also responsible for implementation.


• The HR professionals surveyed rank the top five environmentally-responsible practices to be: 1) encouraging employees to work more environmentally friendly (83 percent); 2) offering a recycling program for office products (83 percent); 3) donating and discounting used office furniture and supplies to employees or local charity (73 percent); 4) using energy efficient lighting systems and equipment such as ENERGY STAR(R) equipment and occupancy sensors (66 percent); and 5) installing automatic shutoff for equipment (63 percent).


• Employees offer a slightly different view and rank the five most important environmentally-responsible practices as follows: 1) donating and discounting used office furniture and supplies to employees or local charity (53 percent); 2) promoting walking, biking, taking public transit (49 percent); 3) using energy efficient lighting systems and equipment (43 percent); 4) offering a recycling programs for office products (39 percent); and 5) encouraging employees to work more environmentally friendly (36 percent).


• Both human resource professionals and employees state that their primary, or number one, motivation for participating in environmentally responsible programs is to make a contribution to society.

Note to the statisticians among us: the Green Workplace Survey's 429 HR professional respondents represent publicly- and privately-owned companies, nonprofits, and the government sector. The 504 employee sample was randomly selected from U.S. telephone population.

You can purchase a full copy of this survey at http://www.shrm.org/surveys/.

What do 150 million disposed cell phones look like?

In "It's the Mobile Things that Count," it was mentioned that 150 million cell phones are disposed annually. Picturing that much waste is nearly impossible, it's such a staggering number few of us can truly comprehend what that might look like.

Chris Jordan, a photographic artist in Seattle, attempts to bridge that disconnect in his latest series Running the Numbers. With his images, he creates a visual connection to the staggering statistics of American life. What do 170,000 disposable batteries look like (the amount Energizer manufactures in 15 minutes)? What do 2 million plastic bottles look like (the amount used in the US every 5 minutes)? Or 60,000 plastic bags (the number thrown away every 5 seconds)?

So how can we use less and waste less?

Instead of having seperate cell phones for work and personal use, just use one. A handful of phones even have dual line capability so you keep your work and personal lines seperate on the same phone. That also cuts down on packaging, instructions, chargers, and maybe more importantly is one fewer device to carry around everyday.

Use rechargable batteries, which often have longer life per charge than disposable alkalines, and cost less over time (4 reusable batteries AA batteries and a charger cost less than $20, and should last a few hundred charge cycles). So you eliminate waste, save money, and get better performance per charge.

Oh, and while he doesn't show us what 150 million cell phones look like at once, he does manage to squeeze 426,000 of them into an image (the number we dispose of each day in the US). You'll just have to picture 365 of those images next to each other.

It's the mobile things that count

Did you know that approximately 150 million wireless phones are replaced each year? Although our phones are some of the smallest consumer electronics that we possess, they are probably the most pervasive. How many people do you know who still do not carry a cell phone? Disposal of ever-increasing quantities of our used devices is likely becoming a significant and growing environmental threat.

I am usually the person who is gunning for the newest phone (a habit I probably don't need to continue) and don't typically struggle to find a new owner for my former gadgets, but many of us don't hesitate to toss our inactive phones in the trash bin, especially since so many of them are free with our wireless service contract or provided by our employer. I'm sure there are also countless used devices stashed in our junk drawers and offices everywhere.

The phones we use and cast aside after one or two years are composed of metals, plastics, glass, chemicals, and rechargeable batteries. Many of us even purchase customized leather, plastic or metal protective carrying cases for them. A significant number of our phones still work when we set them aside and upgrade to the newer and flashier model.

Today, the EPA launched an exciting new education campaign, "Recycle Your Cell Phone. It's An Easy Call." Hopefully, we will soon be seeing a wealth of information circulating to increase public awareness of cell phone recycling and donation opportunities, and we will see an ultimate reduction in the quantity of cell phones hitting landfills.

Some ideas to increase cell phone recycling in the workplace:

1. Encourage teams to establish a consumer electronics recycling day, and offer to facilitate collection and green disposal of used cell phones and other electronics like VCRs and printers. To assist with this, the EPA has established partnerships with consumer electronics manufacturers (like Best Buy and Apple) that make it easy to donate or recycle our used electronics. Check out the Plug-In To eCycling website.
2. Ask your wireless carrier whether they offer a corporate buyback program - some offer a billing credit of $50 or more for certain devices. Apply the proceeds to a green charity. ;)
3. Organize a competitive cell phone collection event at the office and donate the proceeds to charity. Here are some organizations that help:

• GRC Wireless Recycling pays between $0.50 and $30 per cell phone, depending on make & model.
• Wireless…The New RecyclableTM is a national program the wireless industry supports to promote environmentally sound production and take-back of wireless devices.
• ECO-CELL ensures that approximately 80% of the phones they collect will be refurbished and reused by first-time users abroad or by selected local organizations, such as hospital patients for emergency 911 calls
• Sprint Project Connect is a free service for anyone with used phones, connection cards, batteries, or accessories that they no longer plan to use. All net proceeds support 4NetSafety, a program that promotes online safety for kids. To participate, simply pick up a postage-paid envelope at any Sprint store or print one here.