Green Facts

Because cell phone technology changes so rapidly, phones become obsolete almost the moment you buy them! The pace of technology reduces the average life span of cell phones to 18-24 months. According to Consumer Reports, 4 out of every 10 cell phone owners replaced their phones in 2006.

Electronic waste is a fast-growing category of municipal solid waste. Nearly 3 million tons of consumer electronic waste was generated in 2003 alone, according to recent U.S. EPA estimates. Cell phones contain toxic materials such as lead, nickel, and beryllium. Plastics contain brominated flame retardant. Liquid crystal displays contain mercury. Batteries may contain nickel and cadmium.

So unless you recycle that phone you don't use any more, it either sits in a drawer or contributes to pollution. An estimated 130 million cell phones are sitting in people’s drawers in the United States. That's about 65,000 tons of cell phones that are in danger of ending up in landfills or incinerators!

No one wants e-waste toxins polluting landfills or the air through incineration. Remember: Everything that goes into the environment can end up in your body! Pollutants from landfills leach into water supplies and make their way into livestock and other food sources. Airborne waste gets breathed into your lungs. "Thinking Green" means viewing the earth as an extension of your body - what goes into it, goes into you!

E-Recycling For Dummies offers you a chance to make a difference for the environment, your health, and wounded U.S. service men and women!

"It is our task in our time and in our generation to hand down undiminished to those who come after us, as was handed down to us by those who went before, the natural wealth and beauty which is ours."

-- John F. Kennedy,
35th President of the United States