With Cell Phone Recycling, Keep America Beautiful Offers a Simple Solution that Supports a New Energy Agenda

Keep America Beautiful partners with Sprint and ReCellular to promote cell phone recycling, a solution aligned with the new national energy agenda. The organizations' Cell Phone Round-up initiative offers consumers a safe and convenient way to recycle used cell phones.

Stamford, CT (PRWEB) November 16, 2008 -- During his campaign, President-elect Barack Obama vigorously promoted a national agenda for improved energy efficiency and environmental protection. Keep America Beautiful, along with partners Sprint, and ReCellular would like to offer one simple solution that will go a long way towards achieving both goals: cell phone recycling (http://www.recellular.com/recycling/index.asp?campaign=Nov08).

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, recycling just one million cell phones saves enough energy to power over 1,940 U.S. households with electricity for one year. With an estimated 150 million cell phones sitting unused in homes and offices across the country waiting to be recycled or reused, we have the potential to offset the energy consumption of more than 291,000 households.

This is a change that our national leaders can support, offsetting the annual residential electricity consumption for the home state of Vice President-elect Joe Biden (Delaware has 299,000 households), or the District of Columbia (249,000 households).

In addition, recycling 150 million phones would prevent 75,000 tons of e-waste from entering U.S. landfills, to the dramatic benefit of our environment. It would be a painless sacrifice for U.S. consumers to recycle their idled cell phones, and an important first step in addressing our growing supply of e-waste in the U.S.

Virtually everyone has one or two retired cell phones that could be recycled. Nationwide, the number continues to grow as the average American replaces their phones every 18 months.

We look forward to working with the new administration to raise awareness for e-waste and cell phone recycling, turning the potential risk of this growing stockpile of unused electronics into a potential to dramatically decrease our energy consumption and environmental impact.

If you have unwanted phones that could be recycled, please join with Keep America Beautiful, Sprint and ReCellular in the Cell Phone Round-Up in celebration of America Recycles Day by visiting thecellphoneroundup.com. On this website you can print a postage-paid shipping label to safely and conveniently recycle your cell phones. Proceeds from the cell phone recycling initiative benefit community-based efforts to reduce waste, prevent litter, and beautify public spaces.

About Keep America Beautiful, Inc.

Keep America Beautiful, Inc., established in 1953, is the nation's largest volunteer-based community action and education organization. This national nonprofit forms public-private partnerships and programs that engage individuals to take greater responsibility for improving their community environments. The Great American Cleanup™ is the organization's signature program that mobilizes millions of volunteers to improve their communities through hands-on participation. For more information on the organization or to locate a local Keep America Beautiful affiliate, visit kab.org.

About Sprint Nextel

Sprint Nextel offers a comprehensive range of wireless and wireline communications services bringing the freedom of mobility to consumers, businesses and government users. Sprint Nextel is widely recognized for developing, engineering and deploying innovative technologies, including two wireless networks serving nearly 51 million customers at the end of the third quarter 2008; industry-leading mobile data services; instant national and international walkie-talkie capabilities; and a global Tier 1 Internet backbone. For more information, visit sprint.com.

About ReCellular

ReCellular, Inc. is the largest collector, reseller and recycler of wireless devices and accessories. Based in Dexter, Michigan, and with facilities in Brazil and China, the company is committed to the e-waste challenge and collects over 125,000 cell phones at more than 50,000 locations each week. ReCellular has long-standing relationships with leading service providers, retailers and OEMs to administer their recycling programs. Additionally, the company has well-established philanthropic partnerships that generate millions of dollars for charitable organizations. For more information, visit ReCellular.com.

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