How to Become an Eco Bounty Hunter 56 Comments

56 Responses to “How to Become an Eco Bounty Hunter”

• Alex Poole April 29th, 2008
  3:12 pm

  Great idea.

  Luckily I have a wife who is pretty good with these things and my old phones go to charities that will recycle them. Alternatively you there are some websites that will buy your old phone (I just got a new pocket pc phone and sold my old phone for £32)

  http://www.envirofone.com Alex

• Jason DeFillippo April 29th, 2008
  3:16 pm

  Slightly of topic but I’ve been getting pre-paid envelopes for http://www.cellphonesforsoldiers.com/ in all my recent Amazon orders (on books that haven’t been Kindle-ized yet) and have used them all to donate all my old phones. Pretty good promo.

• Mark April 29th, 2008
  3:17 pm

  Hi Tim. Big fan. Just the other day I got an envelope in the mail from the USPS that contained a small bag for recycling small electronics. It was a prepaid, mail-back envelope, and, according to the USPS site, it’s an initiative being tried out in select Post Offices. I live in Evanston, IL, outside Chicago. http://www.usps.com/green/recycle.htm

• Craig April 29th, 2008
  3:17 pm

  Another option would be to donate your old cell phone. Just google “donate old cell phone” and there are several options. I’ve only heard of them from others and haven’t used them myself, so make sure they’re legitimate first. Also, make sure to delete all personal information from the phone just to be safe.

• Justin April 29th, 2008
  3:25 pm

  Jason,
  You nailed it! After the first three words this is exactly what popped into my head.

• isabelle April 29th, 2008
  3:30 pm

  Well, this is really a great idea! Good post Tim!

  Though - how many of your four phones are completely “kaputt”? I mean, when thinking of myself and people around me, i think that the old, dismissed phones are often (not always) working at least fairly well, and have been replaced because of minor defects, taste, want/need for new functions etc.

  I think that the best would be if there might be say two boxes on this card. One saying “doesn’t (work)” and one saying “do”. The “dos” could then be donated to either cellphonesforsoldiers as suggested in the post above by Jason, or - and I’ve been thinking of this before - donated to third world (does that expression even exist anymore? anyway) countries.

  Many cell phone producers are today working on cheaper products for the African market etc. This is good, for sure, but wouldn’t it be a good idea to use “all” cell phones until they’re really finished? The thought of the capcity wasted by collecting functional cell phones and destroying them…

  Too bad I’m Swedish, that bike would really have been something…^^

  Take care! Isabelle

• Jeff Nabers April 29th, 2008
  3:54 pm

  Jason, hats off to you.

  Unfortunately, I agree with Tim that most people won’t do what you did because it’s not cheaper or faster than the alternative of throwing the cell phone away.

  Tim, this is a great promo. Way to use your influence in an effective way. Surely your readers will collectively be more convincing than you alone.

• How to Become an Eco Bounty Hunter | Sometimes, I think. April 29th, 2008
  4:28 pm

  […] targeting the phone companies to accept old and discarded cell phones through the mail. Great idea.read more | digg […]

• funDiva Christy Hoffman April 29th, 2008
  4:38 pm

  I think Jason is on the right track - how can we help organizations that already provide this service get the word out?

  I have another one to mention http://www.UsedCellPhones.com/
  This organization recycles, does fund raisers and provides emergency phones for the elderly, women, and children at risk.

  sidenote: A shout out to bobaflower artists Eileen, Ben, Adryenn & Raina http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/bobaflower/
  At least we know why now :)

• Vicki April 29th, 2008
  4:43 pm

  Hey Tim! I work in entertainment and my company was just discussing pairing with a company that recycles cell phones on spot at concerts in return for “swag bucks.” Here’s an example - http://rotrgogreen.prodege.com/?cmd=fw-home. It’s a really cool idea and I hope we get to see more initiatives such as this come to life!

• Steve Jagger April 29th, 2008
  4:46 pm

  Have you heard of Chris Jordan the artist?
  Check this photo he took - http://www.chrisjordan.com/current_set2.php
  (scroll down to: Cell Phones, 2007)

  The image depicts 426,000 cell phones, equal to the number of cell phones retired in the US every day. Interesting

• Stephanie McFarland April 29th, 2008
  5:06 pm

  We have a local womens’ abuse shelter that takes used donated phones to give to women in dangerous situations to have as an emergency phone that her abuser or anyone else doesn’t know about. I’m sure there are shelters all over the US that use similar donation programs and could use more help.

  Who knows, your donation may save someone’s life.

• Ben April 29th, 2008
  5:06 pm

  Good idea! This reminded me that I’d seen a “Recycle” mark on my Sidekick LX behind the battery. I called the number: 1-800-822-8837, listened to “Al from Home Improvement” tell me how important it is to recycle, typed in my zip code and it told me I could drop off the phone at the Home Depot up the street. That’s sounds dead easy. It looks like Sharp who make the phone are already into recycling them.

• Adam R. April 29th, 2008
  5:26 pm

  The USPS Post office by my house - the one where I currently drop off my muse’s order shipments ;) - has a display with pre-paid envelopes for recycling electronics like cellphones. According to a USPS release (http://www.usps.com/communications/newsroom/2008/pr08_028.htm) the program is back by Clover Technologies Group. Definitely a cool idea.

• Charlene April 29th, 2008
  6:15 pm

  Tim,
  I suggest going one huge step forward with one giant step backwards. Why do the phone service providers and cellphone manufacturers recommend, suggest and promote that you need to upgrade your phone when your “contract” expires.

  I have a cell phone that serves me just fine and has more capabilities than I use. I received a phone call from the service provider to stop by the local shop. When I did the sales rep spun into high mode to “sell” me a new phone. I didn’t want a new phone. What I had was fine. So, let’s first stop the insane concept that we need to upgrade our phones every few years.

  Two, let us work within our own local communities to increase or start our recycling efforts on a community-focus scale.

  And now, a question for you…what is the size of your ecologically footprint?

• CS Thompson April 29th, 2008
  6:25 pm

  Here in Australia most mobile phone stores have a bin in them exactly for this purpose! And there are hundreds of them within a half hour of anyone in a city.

  Suprised you guys haven’t caught up over there yet!

• DunCAN April 29th, 2008
  6:33 pm

  Australia again,
  Why not get the National Postal company to just collect them for the bomail boxs, hold them at mail sorting centres and align yourself with them to pick them up and recycle them yourself. [or your business].
  There has got to be pleanty of copper, plastic, aluminium, gold etc in hundreds of phones to make it worth while?? D

• DunCAN April 29th, 2008
  6:34 pm

  should have checked my spelling, sorry. D

• Jennifer Bingham-Heart April 29th, 2008
  6:51 pm

  Whole foods and T-Mobile take old phones but still not as convenient.
  I don’t know how I got a plastic mail bag postage paid, but I received a bag to give my old phone to the troops so they could call home. I just sent it in the mail, that was easy.

  Tim great idea to rally the Ferrissites to get involved in the consciousness of cell phone recycling.

  Am I wrong in what I have read that some components of cell phones and computers use parts from countries in Africa that are sadly run by warlords or corrupt countries? That I am sure is a bigger political and world problem. Concerned Buddhist Hippy! Right lively hood is difficult if everything is tainted.

  My old company, an evil empire small publisher (which shall remain nameless) wouldn’t even recycle it’s paper. My girlfriend and me would take as much used paper that we could carry. I have to say she did most of it as I too am inherently motivated by convenience. Sorry Good Earth! I do recycle at home always.

  Again, great post I will put my thinking cap on and scour the globe for CEOs to influence. Trying to take over the world. Bah-bahahaha

  Love and Hugs, Jen

• marcie April 29th, 2008
  7:11 pm

  At my son’s last birthday party, I asked guests to bring donations to a local woman’s shelter in lieu of gifts. When I dropped off the items I noticed there was a huge barrel full of old cell phones, and I said “guess you don’t need more cell phones” and the answer was “no, we always need cell phones”.

  I guess, as long as you still have a good battery and a wall charger, a good idea is to donate it to a shelter.

  However, great idea, Tim, we need to recycle more responsibly for sure! ~Marcie

• Gsp April 29th, 2008
  7:15 pm

  Good idea…not sure how well it translates to the UK though, since I think all the major mobile networks (& the Carphone Warehouse - major independant retailer) already actually give you a discount on your new handset when you go in store to buy a new one, or a discount on your tariff if you decide to keep your existing handset when you renew your contract.

  Not as convenient as post, but on the other hand, I’d expect the fact that people actually get some monetary value in exchange for it mitigates that. There are of course some people who just call their network to buy, & have them post a new handset to them. But still, I don’t know anyone who’s actually just thrown their phone in the bin…I personally have kept one as backup, & bequeathed others to older relatives who tend to just be holding on to the 5 year old handset they last got given from someone.

  You also often find refurbished handsets for sale as cheap pay-as-you-go phones at many of the larger stores the networks have.

  It would be interesting to see how/if this idea could be expanded though, to include PDAs, and other consumer electronics…even larger items (though the logistics would obviously have to be different, perhaps to the point of an entirely different model being required)…

• Christine April 29th, 2008
  7:49 pm

  Really it’s not too hard to recycle a phone, hardly requires a national mobilization. Maybe all this effort should be expended for something that hasn’t already been “invented.” This might also be a good time for a reminder about the reduce/reuse part of the equation as well.

  (The list below has been around for a while, might be good to check it’s still current):

  Here’s a list of national stores that have cell phone take-back programs. Stores will take back all cell phones – no matter where they were purchased. Some stores are not listed because they have store-by-store recycling policies as opposed to company-wide policies.

  Alltel Sam’s Club
  AT&T Wireless Sprint Wireless
  Best Buy Staples
  The Body Shop T-Mobile
  Circuit City Target
  Costco US Cellular
  FedEx Kinko’s Verizon Wireless
  Office Depot Virgin Mobile
  OfficeMax Wal-Mart
  Radio Shack

• Marvin April 29th, 2008
  7:53 pm

  Am I missing something here? (It wouldn’t be the first time…)

  So let’s say, just for the sake of argument, that cellphone companies and the like agree to take back the old phones for recycling.

  But then what happens to them? Do the materials actually get recycled, or are we just shuffling off the responsibility to someone else who’s going to toss them in the landfill?

  Where I live, most plastic materials go in blue bins for recycling. But there are actually only a small number of types of plastic that actually get recycled… the rest go on a boat to some far-off land and end up filling up someone else’s landfill. Not really much point in that, is there?

  Here’s an idea: Keep your old cellphone. So it may not be as sexy or as small or in such neato colours or give you high-def display and all the rest of the doodads. Will your life suffer if you don’t have the latest, greatest, fanciest and heavily marketed gizmo?

  The first R of the three Rs is REDUCE. So reduce consumption and the landfill problem is lessened.

• Steve Cassidy April 29th, 2008
  8:08 pm

  Great ideas all! My company manufactures IED training aids to better prepare troops for deployments overseas. Many of the IED’s are triggered by cell phones and LRCT’s (long range cordless telephones).

  I will take all I can get to use them for demonstration purposes for military, law enforcement and first responders.

  All of those can be used as static displays as part of the unit’s permanent collection and thus not being improperly disposed.

• N D April 29th, 2008
  8:11 pm

  I absolutely agree with Marvin on this one. I mean watching “Living with Ed” on HGTV this weekend taught me that there are only certain plastics that recycling companies will actually take whether in the states or in Canada (where I live). I am now more conscious about the environment not only as a citizen of this planet but also as a person with a pet (one of which keeps trying to nibble on almost everything she sees on the ground).

  Furthermore, as mentioned in my previous responses, I work in a bank. This particular branch or rather the city/plaza it is situated in refuses to set up any means of recycling. In this high tech age our branch generates more paper waste in a day than my entire household does in 2-3 months…and that’s including junk mail like flyers and newspapers. I am now in talks with our branch management to somehow introduce a recycling plan. However, the security sensitive information on some of the papers makes for a very fragile situation. I’ll keep on trying my best and my have to resort to taking home the non-sensitive recyclable paper and use my grey bin (that’s our recycling bin for paper only).

  But I totally agree that we should first investigate what the cell phone companies will do to the phones once they receive them. Let’s be proactive, but let’s make sure that we — as Marvin puts it — just don’t pass the buck.

• Soren Harrison April 29th, 2008
  8:16 pm

  Another great resource for doing something useful with your old electronics is Second Rotation (http://www.secondrotation.com/).

• tom April 29th, 2008
  8:33 pm

  yup, like CS Thompson in Austrlaia, here in New Zealand we have the “recycle” bins in all the phone retailers… About as convenient as popping out to the shops…

  But, as Marvine points out - I’m pretty sure that just speeds up the transfer of the phones to landfill. They may well be better off siiting in the top drawer of your side uint for decades to come - much harder to pollute waterways and soil tables when they’re not stored en masse.

  Tim - doesn’t your book say that there’s no point making a process more efficient if it’s not effective? - So, I think you need to address the effective side of your challenge - “to make good behavior convenient, helping us and the planet” doesn’t go nearly far enough…..

  So, what we really need to address is:
  1] reduction of harmful materials going into phones in the first place
  2] reduction of demand (marvin’s idea)
  3] for phones that do still need to be recycled - not just convenient (efficient) but real (effective) - whatever that is?

  That’s the real bounty.

• Bill April 29th, 2008
  8:51 pm

  Hi Tim,

  Not sure if this is what you are looking for, but I received a plastic bag in the mail one day with the url http://www.cellphonesforsoldiers.com. I have one phone to send in -they can be in any condition. Used for the troops to “Phone Home”. Cheers!

• Mike April 29th, 2008
  9:55 pm

  Mr. Ferriss, be reasonable. Not everyone graduated from colleges, like Princeton, that have access to the “good ole’ boy network” (which is made of men and women these days). Demonstrate someone who graduated from a community college, or Ju Co., in B.F.E that has ever actually obtained the ear of a Fortune 500 CEO’s ear without help.

  ###

  Hi Mike,

  Thanks for the comment. Please take a look at the comments of other people on previous posts like this one on contacting George Bush or the CEO of Google:
  http://snipurl.com/26j48

  Plenty of people do this if they do it the right way.

  All the best, Tim

• David Smith April 29th, 2008
  10:59 pm

  Looks like Nokia is already doing it: http://www.nokiausa.com/A4761433

  Just fill in your info and you can print a postage-paid return label to send your phone back. I’ve just done mine!

• Bonni April 30th, 2008
  2:32 am

  Great resources everyone is listing! Love the Blog, Tim!

  I too, am a huge fan of the reduce and reuse approach. We have two cell phones in the house, five and eight years old. Both work great. I think the latter hasn’t got long, but it certainly paid for itself a few times over. When they do finally give out, we have an electronics recycling program here that will take them. And then I’ll be free to go shop for some slick jazzy thing the size of a toothpick that I’ll have trouble finding before the voice mail kicks in… which could be good since I’m not supposed to be answering calls anyway! :)

• Kitty Torres April 30th, 2008
  3:20 am

  Dude,

  Not to rain on your parade, but in my little New York town, you can bring old cell phones to the Stop ‘N Shop grocery store, Staples and several times a year, the local government collects old electronics, tires, and any antifreeze or other substances that should NOT be put in a landfill. These events are run in different parts of the county to make easy for residents to unload these sticky wickets.

  Could it be any easier?

  Love your blog & book, KT

• Dana Gundlach April 30th, 2008
  3:26 am

  So the goal of the being Boba Fett is to pressure the cell phone companies to recycle using the easy drop off bag design? Correct?

  Couple of comments-
  1) Shouldn’t the Ewoks be taking care of this? I mean they live in the forest and are really more effected by landfills than the rest of us.
  2) Boba Fett is the coolest character EVER, well besides Han Solo. But as I think about these guys, I realize that they both did things because they were being paid. Umm.
  3) I have a hard time believing that the cell phone companies will spend millions to start recycling their old phones. That’s like saying Leia enjoyed hanging out with Jabba.
  4) Enter the Entrepreneur. Ah yes, the Han Solo’s of the world (or universe) looking for a need to fill. Recycling is that need. I am not a treehugger but I love efficiency. And truthfully landfills are not efficient, so let’s get some start-ups going to take care of this. I will start today to Han Solo the Recycling Industry. :)
  5) Did they recycle on the Death Star. By the looks of the Storm Trooper’s uniforms, I think they did….

  Thanks,
  Dana Gundlach

• Dan Morelle April 30th, 2008
  5:59 am

  In the UK Carphone warehouse (as an earlier commenter noted) take phones in on a part exchange basis and the phones are refurbished and sold to 2nd and 3rd world countries.

  We also have a charity scheme in place whereby you collect a prepaid envelope from a grocery store, post office or charity shop. Inside this envelope you put your phone and then you just put the package in the nearest mailbox. Easy peasy. The company that receives the phones donates £1/$2 per phone it receives to the charity that distributed the envelope. The scheme seems pretty well established in the UK by http://www.shpsolutions.com/main/charity_partners.asp. Perhaps this is something that could be modelled in the US? Seems like lucrative business opportunity also.

  In Europe I believe it is law that manufacturers have to offer facilities for end users for goods to be disposed of safely and where possible recycled.

  eBay is a good way to recycle your old phone, with eBay for charity: http://pages.ebay.co.uk/community/charity/ you can donate up to 100% of the sale price to the charities involved in the scheme.

• Melissa April 30th, 2008
  6:04 am

  Hi Tim,

  I thought of the same thing Soren did when I read your post. Second Rotation.

  Second Rotation is a website that allows consumers to sell electronics and gadgets online, such as an old cell-phone. By answering a few questions about the condition of an item, someone can instantly see what Second Rotation will pay them for their item. If the offer is accepted, they provide free shipping. Once the item arrives, payment is sent to the seller via a secure payment method like paypal.

  More importantly, they also impact the problem of electronic waste. By buying unwanted gadgets and putting them into the hands of people who still value them, they help extend the useful life of items that would otherwise end up in landfills.

  If an item has no market value, Second Rotation will ensure it is recycled responsibly. Cell phones, laptops, gaming consoles, cameras, mp3 players – all of them are acceptable. Just use the site’s pricing guide to estimate the value of your gadget, pack it up and ship it off for free (Second Rotation supplies printable postage) and you’ll get a check or PayPal payment after they inspect the item. And if your electronic has little or no market value, Second Rotation will make sure it gets recycled properly.

  Sounds like a win win to me! Melissa

• Lis Hubert April 30th, 2008
  6:35 am

  Funny that you posted this discussion because just today I was reading about how Nokia and like companies are working on Sustainable designs. It is of course after the fact, but positive non-the-less. Check out this post from UXNet: http://tinyurl.com/5pb6lc

• Ray Pockalny April 30th, 2008
  8:22 am

  A fan of your webiste contacted me after reading your article and found our business, http://www.usedcellphones.com to advise me to contact you regarding our service.

  We resell ONLY used or refurbished cell phones to help recycle perfectly good technology. We keep our prices as low as possible to afford everyone the opportunity of owning an inexpensive means of communication. People can also donate their old cell phones and we will make certain they are reused or recycled to keep toxins out of landfills.

  Why is it most companies talk recycling on the surface but don’t put their resources behind recycling efforts by using recycled cell phones? To maintain unit volume, cell phone carriers used to discourage users from substituting used cell phones if they broke their phone before their contract was up. Some carriers wouldn’t let a large company sell their phones to anyone unless the company promises not resell them in the USA to keep them out of the recycled stock.

  How many companies out there would be willing to buy a used cell phone for their employees to help reduce the demand on new phones? Based on our experience it is not very many. Maybe your readers can put pressure on their employers to consider better recycling efforts to help sustain businesses like ours (I haven’t been able to take a paycheck in 5 years!) rather than giving lip service to recycling efforts.

• Marvin April 30th, 2008
  9:42 am

  *quick follow-up*

  It almost seems a bit pointless and disheartening, doesn’t it?

  I mean, I go out of my way to separate and recycle and have decreased the amount of junk that goes into the landfill by a substantial amount.

  Then I read of the situation in which N.D. finds himself in at his work: a tremendous amount of waste, no attempt at recycling and no real motivation to do so.

  Am I the only one that feels like it’s a bit pointless in trying to lessen the amount of stuff I discard, when large organizations continue their wasteful ways? What difference can a single person make in a world of prodigious waste-creation?

  As another example, I have reduced my commute by working from home when I can, and when I do commute I take my motorcycle when possible because it’s far more efficient on fuel. (More fun too!) Then, when I am out on the road, I see huge trucks hauling empty trailers, belching smoke and CO2 into the air. My reduction in emissions is completely negated by the wastefulness of poorly-tuned transport trucks, empty buses belching diesel grime into the air, power plants delivering electricity to lights ablaze in empty buildings and computers running overnight, cars idling at poorly timed stoplights, etc. etc.

  Even if every person goes out of their way to reduce their carbon emissions and amount of waste, what good will that do in a world driven by industrialization and the extraordinary amount of pollution and waste created by industry?

  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against industry or commerce - I’m as much of a capitalist as the next guy - but there HAS to be a better way. Isn’t there?

  Is it not time to dispense with the idea of “baby steps,” and instead look at large-scale, massive steps?

• David April 30th, 2008
  11:07 am

  Tim—I bought a new Blackberry through T-mobile earlier this year and included in the box was a postage-paid envelope for sending back my old equipment….not sure if it was instigated by T-mobile or RIM, but kudos to both.

• Andrea April 30th, 2008
  12:57 pm

  Wired online has a new article out about the £5 (or $10USD) phone. Wired figures they are marketing it to drug dealers since the spokesman says “You can just grab one off the shelf, use it once and throw it away if you wanted […] It’s great for people whose regular mobile phone is perhaps broken or they want a back up, or those who have come to this country for just a few weeks.”

  If that is the way things are going, we need recycling centres in all the places these cell phones are purchased.

• Chuck April 30th, 2008
  1:18 pm

  Tim-

  Great post as usual. Many cell phone companies are getting the message and are getting with the program. My latest phone from Virgin Mobile (prepaid, no less) comes with a small envelope and instructions on how to send the phone back to them if you purchase a new one (transfering your # to a new phone is easy) or if your just tired of it and are getting a different phone/plan/provider. I think it is a great idea whose time has come. These phones have hazardous materials that should not be just tossed out. T.V.’s and computers as well.

  Have a great day! Chuck

• TextGuru’s Phone News: The best news about the latest phones! April 30th, 2008
  3:02 pm

  […] Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Workweek put together a logical plan of action for bringing cellphone recycling to the U.S. over on his blog. However, it requires the collective effort of all of you to make this happen. The idea is this—if we lobby enough executives in companies responsible for cellphone manufacturing and distribution, asking for a plan of action, eventually some of these people will reply and will publicly pledge to consider it. As an incentive, Ferriss is giving away free stuff to the best responses posted by June 1st? Sounds good to me… but then again, I’m a huge fan of this stuff. Get all the details over at Tim’s blog. [Tim Ferriss] […]

• marcie April 30th, 2008
  7:14 pm

  Yikes. The more I think about this, I have to say, I don’t really like the idea of mailing anything to be recycled. We should concentrate more on local solutions - and trying to “reduce and reuse” before recycling. How about we badger the CEOs to collect the old cell phones at the point of sale? I agree it then would be up to them to do the right thing, and at the end of the day they will only recycle what is economically feasible (I have been reading a lot about how much plastic we *think* is being recycled just ends up in the landfill anyway, or shipped off to another country - along with other garbage - to be incinerated). Something about using the mail to recycle does not make sense - it equals more CO2 emissions - right?

  I’m on the fence right now about recycling in light of water conservation and global warming - debate to be continued…

  And LOL @ Dana, great post! I don’t think the Death Star recycled much, remember the trash compactor scene in Star Wars and the subsequent scene where the millenium falcon is ejected with the rest of the trash from the Death Star into space?

  On that subject, I kind of think, like the dinosaurs did for us, perhaps all the stuff we are putting into the ground will help the new ‘species’ power their spaceships into the new frontier, after we make the Earth uninhabitable.

  :) ~Marcie

• Crofoot April 30th, 2008
  10:22 pm

  http://www.rbrc.org/call2recycle/consumer/index.html

  All the cell phone carriers have these boxes in their stores.

  The way to make it easier.. Have the garbage companies put one of these boxes in their truck. So put the phone/batteries in a separate plastic baggy with your garbage. Because we all take out the trash.

• Bob Parker May 1st, 2008
  8:16 am

  My 1st suggestion would be to collect all the great ideas into a summary follow-up post.

  My 2cents to add is that when I asked around, I was told that my local police station collects used phones for homeless shelters - that is real close to my home, but the post office is closer (by 3 doors) and more friendly to visit, so I will be tempted to check that out.

  Of course, having an old working spare is useful until you get a couple.

  Also, my church has set up a collection for local women’s shelters (again the need to have a separate number that an abusive person unable to harass at is key).

  Along the similar lines, the last two times I was standing in the Lowe’s return line waiting (reading the signs and not seeing the matching ‘customer focus’ or opening a new register when I was 4th in line), I noticed a collection for used batteries, including a spot for larger batteries.

• Andrew Hinkle May 1st, 2008
  1:48 pm

  One can always use http://www.CellForCash.com and get paid for recycling their unused cell phone. This site purchases over 700 models and offers free recycling for any phone not listed on the site. It certainly does everyone’s planet a world of good!

• Robin Ogden May 1st, 2008
  2:51 pm

  Hi - great post. I have also received the envelope that has been mentioned in other comments with my amazon orders.

  But, here’s another idea… why not have the companies who are providing these envelopes give them to the schools for the teachers to pass out to their students to bring home. They could even promote a contest on the class who brings back the most envelopes with old phones by a certain day gets a ‘pizza’ reward… or something like that.

  My son’s school has these types of things frequently and the kids love to compete with the other classes and they will bug parents (too death…ha) about giving them their old phones to take in so their class will win.

  Just a thought…keep the ideas coming! Great blog by the way…loved the book too :)

  Robin Ogden

• Ed May 1st, 2008
  6:47 pm

  Don’t the mobile phone retail shops all have dump bins for depositing old phones? These shops seem to be everywhere, but I grant you post (mail) boxes are even more everywhere… But I sold two old broken phones on eBay for a little money, but that involved time and effort.

• INES May 2nd, 2008
  5:59 am

  Timothy, I would Like to bring your ideas to ARGENTINA. I want you to make a translation in spanish of your book, A friend of mine sent me your book in english, although I can read not a everybody does and it´s interesting, you will sell a bunch of them
  THANK YOU.
  Ines

  ###

  Hi Ines!

  Ya viene! It’s being published through Editorial Planeta in Argentina, but they’ve told me nothing. Me gustaria saber cuanda va a ser publicado, de verdad :)

  All the best y un abrazo enorme, Tim

• Dana May 2nd, 2008
  8:40 am

  So by the looks of everyones post. None of us are going to call the CEO’s. Sorry Tim, I guess you will just have to do it yourself. :) This brings up a couple of interesting thoughts to me -

  1) Are people lazy or do we just think that someone else will do it? I think it is the latter. Most people have posted that they have already seen other solutions to this problem. I think most people have a sense that others are good and will do the right thing. Which is what we are finding.
  2) If the goal is to reduce the “time and effort” for returning something you bought, then we all know who is being lazy!!! :) I have a hard time thinking it is the responsibility of the cell phone company to make your life easier for wanting a new phone every 10 minutes.

  Marcie - Great point about the recycling on the Death Star. I forgot that they were “space dumping”. I checked on Chewbaccas blog, AlienHairPeace.com, to see if he discussed the space dumping incident. No luck…. Dana

• Design, Sustainability and Our Responsibility | Elisabeth Hubert May 2nd, 2008
  2:26 pm

  […] after reading the above post, I came across another from Tim Ferriss that you can view here that inspires people to take action against the waste that companies like Nokia and others cause by […]

• snow May 2nd, 2008
  11:04 pm

  I just brought your book in Urmuqi,XinJiang,China.
  You are a suprise & super man,haha.
  Thanks for shareing experence to us.
  Happy everyday!

• Tim Ferriss May 2nd, 2008
  11:04 pm

  Hi All!

  Thanks for the great comments and observations. Many of the suggestions are totally valid, but — alas — I believe will not get wide adoption as most of us (speaking for Americans, at least) are just plain lazy and unwilling to even go to a separate location to drop off a phone. I hope people prove me wrong.

  Thank you all for pointing out the alternatives, many of which will help, even with small followings.

  We’ll see if we get any ambitious readers to call the CEOs. Reread my Princeton challenge in the book if you’re thinking “Ah… too much competition…” :)

  All the best, Tim

• Sunday’s Random Rants 5-4 | Unconventional Marketing Blog May 5th, 2008
  5:58 am

  […] I posted a comment on Tim’s blog to which he approved and then included in another post about Becoming an Eco Bounty Hunter. I am pretty excited about all of that and had a great time reading the flood of new comments on my […]

• Nestor May 10th, 2008
  5:37 am

  I recycled my old cell phone as an alarm clock, it might not get signal anymore, but since it keep track of time even when switched off it works as a really efficient alarm clock

• Peter Saintonge May 10th, 2008
  7:21 pm

  Tim, there are companies that export scrap to poor countries, where they’re stripped for materials (aka recycled). I used to work with one, Coasin, in Chile and Argentina, no doubt they exist in the US as well.

  If you publicized their names, I’m sure they’d be thrilled if people mailed in their used phones (from their perspective it’s free money!). I know, people don’t want to pay to mail the scrap, but then when one “pressures” a company to take back old scrap, you still pay for it (at time of purchase), but it’s hidden and mandatory rather than voluntary.

  I’d have thought that’d be the very first thing you’d hit on - outsourcing your recycling!

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