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September 5:
Cook More Efficiently
August 29:
Use Cold Water for Laundry
August 22:
Find New Uses for Old Phones
August 8:
"Bee" Kind to Pollinators: Limit or Avoid Pesticide Use
August 1:
Reduce Waste: End Junk Mail!
July 25:
Encourage Pollination: Help Bees!
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Use Less Oil: Walk or Bike at Least Once this Week Instead of Driving
July 11:
Water Lawns and Outdoor Plants in the Morning or Evening Only
July 4:
Practice Safe Souvenir Buying
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Reuse Paper Scraps
June 13:
Safely Dispose of Hazardous Wastes
June 6:
Give New Life to Old Stuff
May 30:
Make Your Own Non-Toxic Cleaners
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Find Ways to Consume Less
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Reuse your food scraps and yard waste: make compost!
May 9:
Make Sure Your Seafood's Sustainable
May 2:
Use a Low Flow Showerhead
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Reduce Weight in your Vehicle
April 18:
Use a Reusable Water Bottle
April 11:
Switch to Fluorescent Bulbs
April 4:
Buy in Bulk
March 28:
Unplug Your Appliances When They're Not in Use!
March 21:
Turn Off Your Engine Instead of Idling Your Car
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Find New Uses for Old Phones
What to do:
Whenever you upgrade to a new phone, make sure your old phone and accessories get recycled, or—even better— reused!
To make sure a cell phone gets reused, you can donate it to charity. There are various organizations that request cell phone donations. For example, the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence accepts donations of used cell phones to fund their programs, and provides free shipping for old phones. Cell Phones for Soldiers, which has drop-off sites and also provides free shipping, collects cell phones to resell and uses the proceeds to provide phone cards for soldiers. Cell Phones for Soldiers even provides a "Data Eraser" program to help you make sure there's no personal information left on your phone before you get rid of it.
To recycle a cell phone, drop it at a location that participates in the EPA's Plug Into E-cycling program.
Why it Helps the Earth:
Reusing or recycling helps keep chemicals and phone parts out of landfills and keeps energy and resources from being used by the manufacture of new phones.
What the Research Says:
Wired provides a summary of a study on the harmful effects of cell phone waste: Study: Cell Phone Waste Harmful . The New York Times Magazine article The Afterlife of Cellphones provides an in-depth look at the life cycle of a cell phone and at the difficulty of mitigating the environmentally harmful effects of cell phone manufacture and disposal. (Even better than recycling or reusing, the article suggests, is thinking twice before buying a new cell phone in the first place.)
&nbs; Why it Helps You:
Aside from helping keep the earth clean and preserving resources for us and for future generations, donating cell phones also provides a tax break. You can print tax receipts from the websites of the charitable organizations that accept used cell phones.
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Last Revision: August 22, 2010