Consumers Unaware of Recycling Options for E-Waste

by | Apr 11, 2014

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E-wasteAccording to a new survey by EcoATM, 57 percent of American device owners have idle cell phones in their homes, yet only 22 percent state they have previously recycled cell phones they no longer use.

Electronic waste is the fastest growing segment of waste streams and will continue to grow as more new phones and tablets are coming to market each year.

Highlights of ecoATM’s consumer survey include:

Nearly four in 10 device owners (39 percent) have at least two cell phones or more at home, yet less than half have sold, recycled or given old smartphones to someone else (49 percent).

Less than half of device owners would consider recycling old gadgets (46 percent) even though most believe that recycling is good for the environment (86 percent), safe (80 percent) and worth doing (77 percent).

When upgrading a device, 12 percent of device owners would consider throwing their old gadget away in the garbage and nearly one in three (30 percent) would just store it somewhere in their homes.

Just over half of device owners know that it’s possible to recycle unwanted devices in drop-off bins inside cell phone provider stores (56 percent) or online trade-in programs (55 percent), while 20 percent know that automated recycling kiosks exist. More than one in 10 (12 percent) incorrectly believe that placing old devices in any recycling bin (such as a curbside bin) could be a viable option.

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