Cell Phone Recycling starts at Multnomah County!
Today, Multnomah County will begin recycling cell phones in the Multnomah Building and 10 other collection centers throughout the county. This follows a resolution introduced by Commissioner Jeff Cogen and passed unanimously by the Board of County Commissioners earlier this year. The county is partnering with Wireless Alliance – an electronics recycler – to collect and recycle community phones and MP3 players. There is no cost to the county or to residents who bring in their equipment.
The cell phone recycling boxes will be in the following county locations: McCoy Building, North Portland Health Clinic, Elections Building, Yeon Annex, Mid-County Health Clinic, Multnomah County East Building, Multnomah Building, Central Library, Midland Library, Hillsdale Library, and Gresham Library. Residents may bring any type of cell phone, smart phone or mp3 player to be recycled.
“Cell phones and other electronic equipment in our waste stream are unnecessary and can leach toxic substances into the water and air,” says Commissioner Cogen. “There are safe ways to recycle cell phones and mp3 players and I’m glad that we are making this service accessible to our residents.”
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, toxic metals and other materials present in cellular phones include lead, chromium VI, and brominated flame retardants.
Posted on October 8, 2008
Comments
(Note: Comments are the views of their authors, and no one else.)
Posted by: Lisa Alfano - October 9, 2008 07:51 AM
I commend the County and the sponsoring organization for recycling these electronic products. Reducing the waste we add to our landfills is a wonderful thing! My question however is about donating the cell phones and other products that are needed in time of emergency.
To what degree or level were discussions conducted about the feasibility (benefits, advantages, costs) to donating cell phones to safe houses, battered women's shelters, police precincts, and other emergency shelter facilities?
Posted by: Jan Lucas - October 9, 2008 02:48 PM
Recycling is commendable, but reuse is preferable. Verizon Wireless stores collect cell phones in conjunction with a program called Hopeline, which distributes them at no cost to victims of domestic violence for calling 911.
Posted by: jeff cogen - October 9, 2008 05:45 PM
Our recycling program will reuse those phones that can be reused and recycle the rest. Based on experiences our recycling partner has had in other stats we expect that about half of the phones will be reused and half recycled. There are some existing reuse and recycling programs, as Jan mentions, and they are good ones. However, collectively current efforts recycle less than 2% of cell phones, so we wanted to act to increase that percentage.
Posted by: Jeremy - October 21, 2008 11:51 AM
There are a number of cell phone recycling programs that offer free shipping. Most of these programs also offer fundraising programs to allow communities, schools, individuals, etc. to raise money and recycle at the same time. GRC Wireless Recycling (http://www.grcrecycling.com/) is one such program and is also committed to zero landfill recycling.
Posted by: Gail - October 27, 2008 09:22 AM
The collection points probably need to be in secured areas, or else "your privacy will be ensured" isn't necessarily true. The collection container I saw at a library (can't remember which one, maybe Midland) was in a public area where anybody could easily reach in and remove a cell phone. This is ok if the owner erased everything from the memory of the phone before dropping it in, but otherwise not a good idea.
I am proud of our county for putting so much thought and effort into recycling; thank you!
Posted by: Karol - October 27, 2008 09:35 AM
Gail,
Hello! I want to assure you that no, no one can actually reach their hands in and take out a phone. If you look closely, a hand cannot reach down at all and grab a phone. there is a solid bock that prevents that from happening.
Thanks for your support!