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Sprint stores to offer cellphone buyback program to recycle old phones

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What to do with an old cell phone you don’t use anymore?  This is one of the great questions of our day.  Personally, I know I have about two or three old cell phones that I don’t use anymore.  I have one phone I use everyday, and one backup phone in case the first one breaks.  The others sit in my desk drawer taking up space.  Well, I could sell them on eBay or Craigslist, but it can be a hassle.  I could just toss them in the bin, but that isnt too eco-friendly.  If only there was a way I could recycle them…

Well, if you are with Sprint, you can.  They have partnered with startup eRecyclingCorp to offer a phone buyback program in which consumers can get money for older phones when they upgrade to a newer model.  The best part, it can all be done either from the Sprint web site, or at a Sprint carrier store. The way this process works is, according to a post from CNet:

eRecycling Corp has developed an in-store application and a Web service, offered from Sprint’s site. The application lets a person see how much an older phone is worth and get a credit for its residual value when buying a new one. A consumer can also use a Web site from home, mail a phone in, and get a credit for the returned product….

Sprint rolled out the program in 2,500 stores and dealerships so far and has seen its recycling rates shoot up far above the industry average. The company has set recycling rate goal of 90 percent.

I hope more of the carriers do something like this.  Its a good way to feel good about a cell phone upgrade and not worry about old phones taking up space in your desk drawer.  We keep this up and we wont need shows like Clean House or Hoarders.

3 Comments

3 Comments

  1. Glenn

    03/23/2010 at 7:31 am

    Amy, don’t forget the inevitable. Whatever phone you have will eventually get dropped into one kind of bog or another. With Sprint you can pull that old faithful out of the junk drawer and activate your replacement online. It isn’t as easy to do the same thing with the few bucks they credit to your account for trading in that same old faithful. One way, you have plenty of time to make an informed decision about hardware and service plan; without the back up it is impulse buying time and a two year commitment all over again. Even more so with a family plan. Keep at least one good phone in the drawer.

  2. Luccy

    03/25/2010 at 2:28 pm

    So one of the reasons I joined Net10 is that it has nice phone that are very affordable and it is easy to get a new one every few months. Net10 is offers 300minutes prepaid for $30.. great isn’t it. Well a new phone costs between $3o to $80 and they give you 300minutes so a new phone is equivalent to buying minutes. This has left me with a handful of unused phones which need somewhere to go.

  3. Jesse

    03/26/2010 at 7:14 am

    https://www.Cellitused.com is another great place to recycle phones and ipods or electronics, they just launched a new web site that is very user friendly!

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