Where to Recycle Your Cell Phone

A problem with getting a new cell phone is what to do with the old one. Many of us have a stock pile of cell phones that we don't know what to do with. It may be a good idea to hold on to your most recent phone as you can use it as a back-up as long as it can take the card from your current phone.

Recycling your old cell phone, PDA, cell phone batteries, chargers, or other accessories, recovers valuable materials and reduces energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.

Help EPA a recycle unwanted cell phones! Here's how:

Drop It Off

Drop off your old cell phone, PDA, cell phone batteries, chargers, or other accessories at one of the retailers or service providers below. Visit the links for detailed drop-off and collection event information.

AT&T Best Buy Office Depot	Sony Ericsson Sprint Staples	T-Mobile LG Electronics Verizon Wireless
Note: EPA does not endorse the commercial services or products of its Plug-In To eCycling partners. All the previous links exit the EPA site .

Mail It In

Mail in your old cell phone, PDA, cell phone batteries, chargers, or other accessories at one of the retailers or service providers below. Visit the links for detailed drop-off and collection event information.

Nokia Sprint Samsung T-Mobile	Motorola LG Electronics Verizon Wireless Palm
Note: EPA does not endorse the commercial services or products of its Plug-In To eCycling partners. All the previous links exit the EPA site

Learn More

• Before you drop off or mail in your old cell phone, make sure that you have terminated your service contract for the phone and erased any data in the phone.
• To ensure that personal information is cleared from the phone, you can: manually delete all information and remove the SIM card; contact your service provider or phone manufacturer for instructions; or use a data erasing tool such as ReCellular's Cell Phone Data Eraser
• Go to the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association's recycling program Wireless...The New Recyclable^TM for additional tips to consider when recycling your cell phone
  
• Listen to EPA's podcast on recycling your cell phone to learn what happens to your cell phone once it's recycled and hear answers to common questions.
• Learn the basics of the campaign in our campaign overview.
• Have a question about recycling your cell phone? Visit our eCycling frequent questions page.
• Visit EPA's electronics recycling Web site to learn about the environmental benefits of recycling, how to recycle other electronics, and what EPA is doing to help.

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