What to do with your lame old Treo
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Did you get a neat upgrade to your cell phone, iPod, Blackberry, or other electronic gidget as a holiday gift? Is your old handset now perched on an out-of-the-way tabletop in your house, gathering dust and guilt and awaiting the day on which you finally throw it in the trash, making it part of the tons and tons of e-waste that clutters our landfills every year? Thankfully, this sad story is not the only way to go. The Lazy Environmentalist has a radio show today about a company called Dyscern, which recycles handheld computers (Blackberry, Palm) and MP3 players (the ubiquitous iPod). These smart people refurbish electronics which most people would just give up on, and then they resell them for cheap(er).
As for old cell phones, I recently got a new one and looked around a bit to figure out what the deal was with recycling my old version. Turns out most phone companies will take the unit off your hands, and either dispose of it properly or refurbish it to give to a deserving cause (domestic violence prevention, for example). Moreover, even though the t-Mobile store I patronized didn't want my old handset, I visited the company website and found out that I can send it to headquarters (postage paid) and they'll take care of the refurbishing and donating. Finally, as we blogged a bit ago, the US EPA also recently mounted a campaign to boost cell phone recycling, and promised to post a searchable database of dropoff locations on their site, epa.gov.
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