01.02.2012 / Green Life
E-waste? No, thanks
Everyone has an old cell phone sitting on the bottom of a drawer, be it because it has a sentimental value of some kind or simply because going to the nearest e-waste recycling bin feels like mission impossible.
Yet, things would certainly be different if only there was an easier way to dispose of our old phones, maybe even earning some money from what we usually think of as useless junk.
Which is exactly what the guys at San Diego-based start-up EcoATM had in mind when they created their self-serve e-recycling kiosk.
Basically, it looks like an ATM station, but what it does is electronically inspecting phones and assigning them real-time secondary market value.In case the phone still has any monetary worth, users receive a coupon or a gift card for the corresponding value. In case it doesn’t, they can assign it to the recycle bin so that it gets recycled.
Unfortunately, for the time being the only EcoATM in function can be found on the premises of a furniture store in Omaha, Nebraska.
But with 23 phones gone into the recycle bin and over $100 in phones bought back in only a couple of days, the experiment has been so successful that it will probably start spreading sometime soon.
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