I’m the treehugger at CrunchGear and I make it known every chance I get. I don’t overwhelm you with facts and figures or any of that nonsense, but I do put in a gadget here and there. Now this isn’t a gadget, but it does involve your old mobile device that’s just sitting in your junk drawer so listen up. Today is the start of Nokia’s campaign to collect 100,000 unwanted mobile devices by America Recycles Day 2007, which is November 15th. All the festivities begin tonight at the Nokia Flagship store in Manhattan. Feel free to drop off your unwanted gear anytime you want. WWF, those acronym-stealing bastards, will be on hand to address environmental issues and promote environmental awareness. Don’t worry though; if you’re not in NYC you can call 1-87 RECYCLES (877-329-2537) or download a postage-paid return label for your neglected phone, battery and accessories.
Now I’m going to throw some numbers at you so pay attention. The EPA states that 10,000 recycled phones will conserve enough resources to juice 19 homes for one year. The greenhouse gases reduced would equal that of 14 passenger cars being removed from the road for a year. A survey of 400 New Yorkers revealed that 60 percent keep their phones tucked away with most of them not knowing what their options are for proper disposal of old devices.
Man up, America. The problem isn’t going away.
Man, I’m all about reducing waste & recycling and all, but I’m getting *SO* tired of meaningless statistics being thrown around, all in the name of Global Warming. The scare tactics are just silly, and actually do a disservice to really addressing the issue.
Someone, anyone?, want to try & tell me how keeping old cell phones tossed in a box/drawer somewhere wastes “enough resources to juice 19 homes for one year. The greenhouse gases reduced would equal that of 14 passenger cars being removed from the road for a year”.
Best I can tell, my now worthless 8525 *isn’t* sucking any power, locked away in the bottom of the filing cabinet. Maybe the EPA knows something I don’t, and that little bastard sneaks out at night and sucks off the nearest Outlet of Electric Life?
Peter,
Perhaps you would be good enough to point me to the:
1) EPA data you quoted and
2) The New York City Survey source
Thank you
When this campaign is over, don’t forget that almost all public schools and private, for that matter, have some recycling campaign that often earns them some extra money to buy things they might not otherwise. At the school I work we’ve been able to purchase projectors and Interactive whiteboards.