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ReCellular processed a record 6 million used cell phones in 2007, solidifying the company‘‘s position as the world‘‘s foremost collector, refurbisher, and recycler of wireless phones.
PRWeb reported that in 2007, ReCellular:
§ employed 240 people at facilities in Michigan, Texas, Hong Kong, and Brazil
§ collected 6 million used cell phones for recycling or refurbishing
§ raised more than US$20 million for charitable causes for 50 non-profit partners
§ diverted more than 1 million pounds of materials from landfills by recycling efforts
Cell phone collections:
For 2007, ReCellular acquired a record 6,034,771 used cell phones through corporate, charitable and grassroots collections programs. This amount of phones is the equivalent of:
10 million kilograms of carbon emissions – according to the Environmental Protection Agency, producing six million cell phones would consume enough energy to power 11,400 homes for a year, and produce more than 10.3 million kilograms of carbon emissions.
A year‘‘s supply of gasoline for 6,000 vehicles according to The Use Less Stuff Report, each cell phone produced consumes materials and energy equivalent to. 75 gallons of gasoline. Six million phones represents saving the equivalent of 4.5 million gallons of gasoline in materials and energy usage. That‘‘s enough to fuel 6,000 vehicles for one year, each averaging 20 miles per gallon for 15,000 miles.
US$3.8 million worth of precious metals
According to the U. S. Geological Survey, each wireless phone circuit board contains US$0.63 – not factoring the cost of recovery – of gold, platinum, silver, palladium and copper. Cell phone circuit boards yield more gold per ton (300 grams of gold per ton of circuit boards) than ore from gold mine operations (five grams of gold per ton of ore).
In 2007, ReCellular recycled 1,011,001 pounds of materials, including:
§ Plastic phone housings, containing mixed plastics 32,110
§ Complete handsets and circuit boards, containing precious metals such as gold, silver, platinum and palladium 157,415
§ Batteries, containing heavy metals such as nickel, iron, cadmium and lead 203,819
§ Chargers, containing copper wiring 375,090
Total pounds of phone components recycled: 768,434
In addition, ReCellular implemented a zero-waste policy to help limit ReCellular‘‘s environmental footprint. All donated materials are recycled, including cardboard, paper and plastic shipping materials. These recycling efforts diverted an additional 242,667 pounds of materials from landfills.
Finally, in 2007, ReCellular increased the company‘‘s green power renewable energy commitment to purchase 100 percent Green-e certified renewable energy credits representing 708 megawatt-hours of total energy consumption by ReCellular.
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