OTTAWA – This Sunday’s Earth Day 2012 is the perfect opportunity for Canadians to give their old cell phones the send-off they deserve, and ensure they don’t end up in landfills, via Canada’s free cell phone recycling program.
Run by the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA) in conjunction with cell phone carriers and handset manufacturers, ‘Recycle My Cell’ makes it easy for Canadians to find out how and where to safely and responsibly dispose of their used cell phones, smart phones, pagers, wireless air cards, batteries, chargers, headsets and other accessories. Additionally, a donation to participating charities is made for each device returned through the various recycling programs.
A visit to the bilingual website allows consumers to enter their postal code to locate the ten drop-off locations closest to them where their devices will be accepted, regardless of brand or condition. Should someone be unable to visit one of the 3,500 drop-off locations, the site also provides printable postage-paid labels to use for mailing the devices.
Since the launch of the program in 2009, more than 875,000 devices have been recovered for recycling or refurbishing. With approximately 96% of the materials in an average mobile device able to be recycled, that represents 175 tonnes of e-waste that has been diverted from Canada’s landfills.
“The continued success of the Recycle My Cell program shows that Canadians take their environmental responsibility seriously,” said CWTA president and CEO Bernard Lord, in the announcement. “The ability of free programs such as Recycle My Cell to make a difference depends on the commitment to environmental stewardship by consumers, industry and government. We thank all of those who make this program possible.”
Recycle My Cell’s partners include Bell, Dell Canada Inc., FCM Recycling Inc., GEEP Inc., GREENTEC, LG Electronics Canada, Inc., Lynx Mobility, Mobilicity, Motorola Mobility, MTS, Nokia, Research In Motion, Rogers Communications, Samsung Electronics Canada Inc., SaskTel, Sims Recycling Solutions, Sony Mobile Communications, TBayTel, Telus, Videotron, Virgin Mobile Canada and Wind Mobile.
