Improving Recycle Rates for Mobile Handsets

Recently, I've been working with a new company that is destined to radically change the way that the world thinks about recycling mobile phone handsets. Or maybe better said, the way that we don't think about it.

Only about 3 percent of displaced phones are currently being recycled and over 74 percent of people aren't even aware that their phones can be recycled. It is estimated that in the U.S. alone, over 1 billion previously-used phones are already discarded, just sitting in drawers, with over 150 million more joining them every year. This drawer-bound cache offers a total value of $10 billion dollars when refurbished and channeled into the growing market for used phones - largely in developing countries where wireless infrastructures are growing rapidly and used phones provide an attractive option.

The key to success is finding a more effective way to attract and incentivize the owners of these displaced phones - causing them to feed a much higher percentage of used phones into the recycling channels.

Watch this space in the near future for the name of the company and much more detail on their innovative, game-changing approach to this important challenge.