MNN - Mother Nature Network

New cell phone models are coming out on a regular basis. Gadget geeks across the country, including myself, always want the latest phone that has all the nifty new features. However, this tendency to buy new phones as they come out is creating a potential landfill problem. Not everyone wants to buy an old phone, so what do we do?

 

One company, Communications Wireless Group (CWG), works with both business owners and wireless companies to recycle, refurbish and reuse old wireless devices while maintaining a zero-landfill policy. The company has kept over 1.5 billion pounds of phone scrap out of landfills since its inception in 2006.

 

The company estimates that there are 1 billion cell phones taken out of circulation each year. At a time when first-graders walk around with cell phones, this number is only going to continue to rise. The recycling model that CWG uses helps to ensure that all of these devices don’t end up in landfills. CWG refurbishes some models, reclaims parts from within broken devices for reuse, has a secured data erasure system, and disposes of the remaining parts in an environmentally friendly way.

 

 

Although many gadget geeks want the latest cell phone technology, others are fine with whatever works. If your employees like to stay ahead of the curve, CWG will buy used handsets to refurbish, using parts reclaimed from other phones they’ve bought back. The handset is then remarketed through CWG channels to those businesses that don’t need to use the latest technology. If the handset is beyond repair, then CWG meticulously removes all of the reusable parts from the handset, ensuring maximum reusability at the component level.

 

CWG has offices in the Midwest as well as China and processes more than 3.5 million accessories and 1.5 million batteries each year, reclaims, tests, and delivers more than 100,000 parts each month, and has securely cleared data from more than 4 million headsets.

 

For more information about the company’s services, visit the Communication Wireless Group website.