Have a cell phone you don't use anymore - or possibly a drawer full? Well, you're in luck - there is a plethora of locations to recycle cell phones and their accessories. Not only do cell phone providers offer a recycling program, but cell phone manufacturers have programs, too.
AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint all offer in-store drop-off locations for cell phones and accessories, and all accept any items, no matter the provider or brand. And how about this for an incentive to recycle: Sprint has a Buyback Program for its customers which offers an account credit for returning eligible Sprint and Nextel models of phones.
Cell phone manufacturers Samsung, Nokia, LG and Motorola offer mail-in recycling programs, where you can print off prepaid postage labels from their Web sites to mail in phones and their accessories for recycling. There are also drop-off locations at your local Staples, Office Depot and Best Buy stores.
Don't forget to prepare your unused phones before you recycle them. Before you drop it off or mail it in, make sure you have backed up any information you need to save, terminated your service contract and erased any data in the phone. To ensure your information is cleared, you can manually delete all information and remove the SIM card, contact your service provider or phone manufacturer for instructions, or use a data erasing tool such as ReCellular's Cell Phone Data Eraser.
