The Wireless Alliance :: cell phone recycling and refurbishing located in Boulder, Colorado.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Sheppard instructor turns old cell phones into new possibilities
By Stacy Horany

Originally appeared in the Times Record News : Wichita Falls Online

Photo by Jason Palmer/Times Record News

Terry Kelley, a civilian instructor at Sheppard AFB, is collecting old phones, MP3 players and accessories to recycle to collect funds for the Cell Phones for Soldiers program aimed at sending pre-paid phone cards to military personnel deployed around the world.

Photo by Jason Palmer/Times Record News

Instead of filling landfills and polluting groundwater, old cell phones can turn into valuable talking time for deployed military service members, according to a recycle-minded civilian at Sheppard

Terry Kelley, an instructor for the munitions apprentice course in the 363rd Training Squadron, said in his previous job as the 882nd Mission Support Squadron’s environmental manager, he became aware of recycling opportunities

"I was involved in the recycling effort on base as part of my old job — recycling is in my blood," Kelley said. "I saw an article about recycling cell phones, and I thought this could be a great thing for Sheppard."

So about the first of December, Kelley started collecting old cell phones, MP3 players and PDAs using green and white boxes from The Wireless Alliance, a company that recycles old phones and then sends a check to the donor. Once Kelley gets the check, he donates the money to Cell Phones for Soldiers, a program started by two Massachusetts teenagers that sends phone cards to deployed service members.

"The base benefits from it, the environment benefits from it and the service members benefit from it," Kelley said of the program. He said The Wireless Alliance will refurbish the phones and sell them or take them apart and dispose of them safely, without dumping them in landfills or shipping them to other countries to be dumped.

He said his first box filled up with about 102 phones and accessories and he got a check for about $95, which he is going to send to Cell Phones for Soldiers this week. "Each phone equals about two phone cards," Kelley said.

He said he has a collection box outside the base exchange and a few others in different training groups on base, but he’d like to extend the program to include Wichita Falls and surrounding areas.

"I’d like to ask if any associations, churches, schools or businesses want to have a collection box," Kelley said. "I’d like it to be a continuing, year-round thing."

He said the collection boxes arrive with return postage already paid. The Wireless Alliance will take phones, PDAs and MP3 players that are working or broken, with or without accessories such as chargers and headsets.

"They’ll take any of them and the phones can be broken or in pieces — that’s what I like about Wireless Alliance," Kelley said.

He said the Cell Phones For Soldiers Web site, www.cellphonesforsoldiers.com, also provides instructions for erasing data off used phones before donation.

If you have a friend or family member currently deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan, Kelley said you can send them a phone card using the Cell Phones for Soldiers Web site, if you have their name and address.

"I’ve got a friend I worked with here as an instructor who is in Afghanistan and I’m in the process of getting his address to send him a phone card," Kelley said. "It’s important because it keeps our landfills clean and it keeps our troops able to call home."

For more information about the program or to get a collection box for your organization, contact Kelley after 5 p.m. at (940) 782-2127 or by e-mail at TLKelley251@aol.com.

Telwares Offers Recycling Initiative as Part of New Mobility Lifecycle Management Solution

Telwares (http://www.telwares.com) announced today the availability of cell phone recycling services to its Mobility Lifecycle Management solution. This significant offering addresses the growing demand among enterprises for greener and more secure alternatives for disposal of extraneous or outdated voice and converged mobile devices, as well as their accessories. It is a critical piece of the overall Telwares Mobility Lifecycle Management solution that also includes contract negotiation, audit and optimization, inventory and invoice management, device and plan procurement, help desk support, and over-the-air software updates.

The rapid obsolescence of devices and technology results in thousands of pounds of toxic trash annually in the United States alone. One cell phone, if thrown away, can pollute 40,000 gallons of ground water. In partnership with The Wireless Alliance, headquartered in Boulder, CO, Telwares will collect unneeded cellular equipment that otherwise fills desks and closets, and scrub any remaining data. The cell phones collected from this program will then be refurbished and reused, or smelted down for metals and plastics in strict compliance with EPA standards. No units collected will be sent to a landfill.

"It is estimated that more than 125 million wireless phones will be discarded this year," said Bill Walsh, Telwares president and chief operating officer. "Both Telwares and our customers recognize the threat this waste can pose to the environment. We are responding by delivering a green solution for our customers that makes device disposal and recycling effortless and secure."

"Only a small percentage of handsets manufactured are recycled, even though 50 percent of those phones could be reused," said Jon Newman, VP and owner of The Wireless Alliance. "Such unnecessary and environmentally harmful waste is increasingly recognized as a serious problem for society and the planet. We are very pleased to include Telwares as a partner in a program that is convenient, economical and beneficial to all involved."

The Wireless Alliance (TWA), works with recyclers, wireless carriers, and non-profit organizations to collect, reuse and recycle cellular equipment. All equipment is repurposed in a zero waste manner. The Wireless Alliance has reclaimed over 300 tons of wireless equipment from landfills, contributing to a cleaner and safer environment.

Telwares is the leading provider of telecommunications spend management solutions to the Global 2000. Headquartered in Denver, Telwares serves the TEM industry's largest client base representing every industry across the globe. Telwares currently holds $6.6 billion of telecom services under management and has saved clients more than $5 billion from the $15 billion of contracts negotiated. Telwares customers additionally profit through the expertise of a management team comprised of experts and thought leaders well known to the industry. For more information, visit http://www.telwares.com.

Making it Easier to Recycle Cell Phones: New Partnership Increases opportunities to Keep California Beautiful.

Sacramento, Calif. (PRWEB) - Keep California Beautiful (KCB) in partnership with American Wireless, and The Wireless Alliance has developed a program to provide cell phone recycling opportunities throughout California. The partnership already has expanded the existing cell phone recycling program developed by KCB and the Wireless Alliance to include drop off locations at 300 of the nearly 1000 dealerships associated with American Wireless with additional locations to be added...

Ruling Allows Cell Phone Unlocking, but Telco Sues Anyway - By David Kravets

Mark it on your calendar: Nov. 27, 2006, the day a Colorado cellphone recycling outfit accomplished what high-powered lawyers could not and chiseled a chink in the armor of the mobile-phone industry’s cherished business model.

The Library of Congress’ decision that unlocking mobile phones does not violate U.S. copyright law was all about keeping America beautiful. You heard right. It had nothing to do with any underlying antitrust legal theory like the one used in two unsuccessful federal lawsuits in New York. Other anti-locking handset suits are pending in California.

The inspiration for exempting mobile-phone locking software from the Digital Millennium Copyright Act blossomed from The Wireless Alliance of Boulder, Colo. (not to be confused with perennial troublemaker Wireless Communications Alliance of San Diego.) The Wireless Alliance actually has a cordial relationship with industry. None of that Greenpeace business. Among the cellphone recycler’s partners are Bluegrass Cellular, Midwest Wireless, Xero Mobile and the Rural Cellular Association.

No, the sky’s not apt to fall anytime soon as a result of the Library of Congress un-locking rule. Mobile-phone carriers will continue to sell and consumers will continue to buy heavily subsidized do-everything phones bundled into service contracts today, tomorrow and the next day. And the day after that. And so on.

But what about five or 10 years from now? Is the Library of Congress action an aberration, or is the two-decade-old cellular service-equipment business model out of step with the rest of the digital net-centric world? The mobile-phone industry was quick to point out the ruling does not prevent carriers from continuing to lock phones as they wish. So most probably will. Handset vendors, whose masters (at least in the U.S.) are the mobile-phone carriers, may not be shedding any tears about the out-of-the-blue Library of Congress edict. Indeed, handset vendors from this day forward may come to embrace Nov. 27 as a day of commercial thanksgiving. Not so for wireless trade association CTIA and prepaid kingpin TracFone Wireless, with the ruling coming right as the starting gun sounded for the high-flying holiday buying season.

The U.S. Copyright Office, whose recommendation to exempt mobile-phone locking software from the 1998 copyright statute was accepted by the Library of Congress, cut no slack after both submitted comments late in the proceeding. Indeed, Register of Copyrights Marybeth Peters apparently wasn’t in the mood for excuses, or arguably equity.

"While it is preferable that all interested parties make their views known in the rulemaking process, they must do so in compliance with the process that is provided for public comment, or offer a compelling justification for their failure to do so. They have failed to offer such justification," said Peters. Geez. It makes one feel like a 1st grader who just got read the riot act by the librarian for putting a book back in the wrong place.

Chinook Wireless, The Wireless Alliance Partner To Provide Cell Phone Recycling - The Wireless Alliance

Wednesday, November 22, 2006 - Stanford Law School - The Center for Internet and Society (CIS)

Everybody keeps talking about the 1 billion mobile phones shipping this year, but how much do you hear about the 125 million phones that will be thrown away?

Perhaps more than in the past, if two organizations—and many like them—have their way.

Keep America Beautiful, more than a half-century old, is an environmental, nonprofit organization dedicated not just to beauty but to keeping toxic materials out of the nation's soil, water and critters, including humans. It organizes volunteer-based, community efforts to reduce waste, prevent littering and beautify neighborhoods. The Wireless Alliance is a Boulder, Colo.-based nonprofit that reclaims wireless handsets for refurbishing, reuse or recycling.

The two groups will work in tandem on the Great American Cleanup in 2007, the nation's largest annual community improvement program said to involve 15,000 communities and more than 2 million volunteers.

Cell phones contain lead, arsenic, beryllium and other hazardous toxins that leach into the environment, once deposited in landfills.

KEEP AMERICA BEAUTIFUL PARTNERS WITH THE WIRELESS ALLIANCE FOR 2007 GREAT AMERICAN CLEANUP™ - The Wireless Alliance

Boulder, Colorado – November 7, 2006 – The Wireless Alliance, a leading cell phone recycling company, announced today a partnership with Keep America Beautiful to facilitate the recycling of wireless waste for their 2007 Great American Cleanup™.

Keep America Beautiful’s Great American Cleanup™ is the nation’s largest annual community improvement program with over 30,000 clean-up, green-up and fix-up events in over 15,000 communities throughout the United States, involving 2.3 million volunteers.

"Keep America Beautiful’s Great American Cleanup™ is a large and diverse program, and we wanted to work with an established cell phone recycling company that maintains a zero-waste policy and recycles according to national and local EPA laws," said Gail Cunningham, Managing Director of Keep America Beautiful’s Great American Cleanup™. "Our educational partners play an important role in our outreach, and we’re very selective about who we choose to work with. The Wireless Alliance’s knowledge and cell phone recycling reputation made this an easy choice."

The Wireless Alliance works with manufacturers, wireless carriers, recyclers and non-profit organizations to collect, reuse, resell and recycle cellular equipment. Since 2002, The Wireless Alliance has diverted more than 300 tons of wireless equipment from landfills.

"It’s an honor to be selected as a partner by Keep America Beautiful," said Peter Schindler, President of The Wireless Alliance. "We’re looking forward to helping Keep America Beautiful build awareness about cell phone recycling during the 2007 Great American Cleanup and throughout the year. Together we will keep our environment free of wireless waste."

"The downside of rapid advances in cell phone technology is the impact that used or obsolete phones have on the waste stream," said G. Raymond Empson, President of Keep America Beautiful. "Through our partnership with The Wireless Alliance we can provide consumers with timely opportunities, resources and information that help them to make responsible choices in the proper disposal of their wireless phone equipment."

Xero Mobile Unveils Recycling Initiative in Partnership With The Wireless Alliance - Xero Mobile

CU-Boulder Begins Cell Phone Recycling Through Environmental Center And The Wireless Alliance

The University of Colorado Environmental Center's Recycling Program is partnering with The Wireless Alliance to help establish the university's first permanent cell phone recycling program.

Campus recycling kiosks will serve as collection sites for students who want to dispose of old cell phones in an environmentally conscious manner and money raised in the recycling campaign will benefit various student organizations within the University of Colorado's Student Union, or student government, according to Jack DeBell of CU's Recycling Services.

In May 2005, CU Recycling teamed with The Wireless Alliance to produce a campuswide consumer electronics round-up, bringing in 20 tons of electronics equipment for recycling or reuse in schools around the state.

In April 2005, CU-Boulder was one of three universities nationwide to receive the Higher Education Recycling Leadership Award from Dell. CU was selected because of its commitment to leadership in the areas of technology innovation, environmental sustainability and campus community recycling.

CU Recycling is widely regarded as one of the nation's leading campus programs and has been recognized as an innovative leader by local and national organizations and committees.

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Did you know...

It is estimated that over 125 million wireless phones will be discarded this year! Wireless phones can be redistributed, refurbished or recycled - almost every part of a wireless phone is recyclable! Recycling your phone costs you nothing and contributes to the well-being of our planet.