Phone Recycler Has Record Year

It’s all very well to talk constantly about the new, but what happens when the new becomes old? It’s discarded like yesterday’s newspapers.   But ReCellular has spent the last 17 years rescuing the cell phones people throw away, and last year was their best ever, they announced at CES.   They collected six million wireless phones that would otherwise have ended up in landfills, keep a million pounds of materials from becoming waste, and alongthe way raised over $20 million for charity.   That’s the equivalent over more than 10 million kilos of carbon emissions – enough to power more than 11,000 homes for a year, or givean annual supply of gas to 6,000 vehicles.   The phones come from corporate, charitable and grassroots collections,   "Over the past five years, we have grown exponentially," saidChuck Newman, ReCellular’s founder and CEO, "in large part due to our ongoing efforts to increase consumer awareness for cell-phone recycling, and the innovative collection programs weoffer our corporate and charitable partners."   The company is able to recondition about half the collected phones. The others are dismantled and sent to partners to reclaim valuablematerials.