The Wireless Alliance and CU Recycling are teamed up to encourage students to recycle cell phones by placing recycling bins in the UMC across from Baby Doe’s and in Darley Commons in Williams Village.
Trevor Ruwitth, the account manager at the Wireless Alliance in Boulder, said that 221 phones have been received from CU this year.
He also said that this month about 50,000 phones have been donated to the Wireless Alliance nationwide.
“The [phones] that work are resold,” Ruwitth said. “Others are used for their precious metals.”
Ruwitth said that any phone that is thrown away uses 40,000 gallons of water. The goal of the program is to prevent this waste.
Sarah McCullar, 19, a sophomore gender studies and political science major, said she is aware of the waste cell phones can produce if not recycled.
“The minerals and resources needed to make cells phones caused me to recycle,” McCullar said.
Kerri Meador, a 21-year-old junior international affairs major, also chose to recycle her phone.
“We’re getting a landline phone,” Meador said. “So I didn’t want to throw [my cell phone] away.”
Another student, J.C. McKim, a 19-year-old sophomore at CU, is also following the trend.
“It was actually my mom’s idea,” McKim said. “I figured it sounded good. It’s more efficient and less wasteful.”
Interested in donating a phone?
Drop off location: UMC across from Baby Doe’s
Drop off location: Darley Commons in Williams Villages by the main office
Send your cell phone to 209 UCB, Boulder CO 80309
Visit: http://www.thewirelessalliance.com or call the Wireless Alliance toll free: (866) 366-5792
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Sara Fruman at sara.fruman@colorado.edu.