Super Eco

Photo credit: Cyrillicus, flickr

Oh, goody. It’s eCycle Your Cell Phone Week and I’m crazy excited about ditching my el cheapo cell-o.

Chalk it up to serendipity: The battery inside my wireless whack job just happens to croak during the one time a year the EPA practically begs people not to e-waste their old mobiles. Then I notice on TV last night that T-Mobile is selling two BlackBerries for the price of one. Two! And then my husband has to give his phone back to his boss, like, yesterday. Oh, yeah. Hello snazzy new phone! Can you hear me now?!

Enough about my high-falutin’ BlackBerry dreams. I have bigger, greener, more realistic plans this week. Must … eCycle … crappy … excuse … for … a … cell … phone. But how? This better be easy.

Phew! It is. Sparing your old, broken or just plain outdated LG Chocolate (or whatever you press to your ear, ahem, not while driving) is easier than nabbing a gazillion-bar signal with that giant Verizon team stalking you:

1. Simply click over to Earth911.org.
2. Use Earth911’s nifty online cell phone e-cycling drop-off location finder
3. Get thee to found e-waste recycling facility, preferably by foot or bike. C’mon. You kind of have to. After all, this IS Earth Month and, well, you’re an earthling, I hope. Don't forget your old PDAs and accessories, too.
4. Reward yourself with a gaggle of good, green karma points, then cut to the fun part—shopping for a new cell phone, baby! After all, you deserve it for giving valuable materials, like precious metals, copper, and plastics, a second life, right? Also for helping to trim greenhouse gas emissions and conserve natural resources.

Oh, and if, for some reason, you can't recycle your old cell in time for this week’s nationwide drive, just freecycle it on down to your kids. Warning: This only works with the preschool set. You can use your expired ring-a-ling for leverage when you want to make Lady Gaga’s Poker Face your new phone's ring tone. Trust me. Your knee-high Wii-brain will know how, even if she can't read ... yet.