Web Worker Daily

With the Apple iPhone on the horizon, many web workers are salivating for a mobile communications upgrade. But as a recently-released study in Environmental Science & Technology reminds us, even the latest lead-free cell phones count as hazardous waste if they end up in a landfill due to high levels of copper, nickel, antimony, and zinc leaching out of them. The thought of hundreds of millions of old phones turning into an environmental nightmare isn’t exactly pleasant.

Rather than pitching your retired model into the trash when you buy that iPhone, try one of these alternatives:

Pass it along. I hear that more and more pre-teens have their own cell phones these days. Do yours really need a brand new one? How about giving them the hand-me-down instead? On a more serious note, the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence sponsors the Call to Protect program to put phones in the hands of domestic violence victims for emergency use.

Recycle it for charity. There are a number of organizations that accept old cell phones (as well as other things like ink cartridges, PDAs, digital cameras, and iPods), recycle them or dispose of them in environmentally-friendly ways, and make a donation to the charity of your choice. Three that turned up frequently as I looked around are Recycling for Charities, Collective Good, and WirelessRecycling.com. You get a tax donation out of the deal, too.

Drop it off and forget about it. If you can’t be bothered to pack the phone in a box and print a mailing label, Collective Good has partnered with Staples. Just drop your old electronics at any Staples store, and the charity donation automatically goes to the Sierra Club. As a bonus, you could feed your office supply fetish at the same time.

One of the big selling points for web work is that it helps the environment by cutting down on commuting and the overhead of big office buildings. Doing the right thing with old cell phones is one more way to keep your telework green.