The Wireless Alliance Has Advice About Cellphone Recycling

LAFAYETTE, Colo. (CBS4)- One thing most people never think of when they get a new smartphone or tablet is the environmental impact of that that device, but it is substantial. One Colorado company is trying to change that.

"It takes a lot of raw materials. About 165 five pounds of raw material to make one new device," said Andy Bates with The Wireless Alliance.

The Wireless Alliance is a company in Lafayette that recycles old cellphones.

Plus, people often upgrade and get rid of their old one. If all those old devices were just thrown out, it would create a lot of waste. That's why The Wireless Alliance collects old phones, refurbishes and them resells them, to keep raw materials in the ground and old cellphones out of it.

"Coloradans are throwing away about 7,800 cellphones per day," says Allison Conwell and organizer with The Colorado Public Interest Research Group. "It's critical that we do everything we can to ensure that phones that can be reused are reused to stem the flow of cell phones into our electronic waste stream."

There is one thing stopping The Wireless Alliance and companies like them from taking some devices and recycling them: activation locks.

"An activation lock is a lock that embeds you customer account to the hardware on the phone and when the activation lock is turned on you can't take that customer account away and add a new one so the phone can't be reused," said Conwell.

That's why CoPIRG is reminding people to unlock their phone and wipe its data before donating it or returning it to your cell phone carrier.

"It's really great for the environment to reduce electronic waste and it saves consumers money by fostering a robust used phone marketplace," said Conwell.