Greenpeace recently wrote the guide to greener electronics about the top 18 manufacturers recycling guide which included mobile phones.
Nokia does have the easiest phones and readily available parts for refurbishing. Refurbishing is reuse and I can speak on behalf of cell phone recycling.
I suspect the climbers in the middle have some hefty advertising budgets rather than solutions they are putting in place but either way the article is a good temperature gage for where we are at today.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Monday, November 17, 2008
Green your Routine
Being in the green business world I am always curious when a large conglomerate campaigns or advertises their green message. During Sunday Night football last night, I noticed that the NBC peacock was all green, instead of the usual rainbow, so I went to the website. I have to say that the Green Tips section from the main page were a lot of fun to read and it actually got me thinking about all the computers and the server we have running here at Cellular Recycler. I have included the ‘work’ section from the Green Tips below but if you have the time go through the rest of these helpful tips.
-Make your coffee break greener. There are many ways to make your coffee break eco-friendly. For example, putting sugar in your cup before you pour your coffee will eliminate the need for a stirrer. Also, use a ceramic mug instead of a Styrofoam or paper cup.
-Print smarter. Printing and copying can be one of the most costly operations in any office. To save on ink and paper costs, print double-sided and try to fit more than one page on a sheet. More printing tips can be found on Life Hacker
-Turn off your computer. Do you leave your computer on overnight? If so, you're using up a good amount of electricity. When you can, try turning off your computer and the power strip it's connected to. If you can't, at least shut off your monitor. Remember, screen savers don't save energy.
-Recycle at the work place. It seems easy enough, but if you're office doesn't do it already, suggest putting recycling bins in your kitchen and copy rooms. You'll feel less guilty about throwing away all that paper.
-Use eco-friendly utensils. Replace those plastic knives and forks in the break room with silverware or biodegradable utensils. If you have the space, try to get everyone in the office to bring their own mugs and plates from home.
It just goes to show you even when the environment is on your mind every day you can still lose sight of the basics. Not only do the basics help lessen the footprint we make, the basics can help you save a little green, and right now that is needed advice.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Part 1: Hatching an Idea for the First Cell Phone Recycling Pick-Up Campaign
For the next few weeks, I will be blogging about a new Cellular Recycler campaign with Papa John's Pizza. Here is my first post about the idea behind the campaign.
Shortly after the 2007 NFL football season, I was listening to Sports Radio 950 the fan (now FM 104.3). Now, I have never done radio advertising and we definitely haven’t done it for Cellular Recycler. But, as I was listening, I thought it might be a good venue for letting soccer moms and football dads out there know that there was a new fundraising option instead of the every day popcorn and Christmas wreath sales that both kids and parents (and their parents' officemates)have to endure. The station was nice enough to invite us down to talk about a possible partnership. Admittedly, I didn’t know exactly what we were after, except that I felt it was time to take cell phone recycling to the people through a more widespread public campaign.
Although it was fun to see Scott Hastings and Alfred Williams doing their radio show, it wasn’t a great fit initially. We found out pretty quickly that 90% of their listeners were male. (You might say ‘duh’, but remember that at the time we were new to the whole radio advertising thing.) From our experience of building ground floor collection campaigns with companies like the American Cancer Society, we knew that we really needed to communicate with women in order to have a successful campaign. (Why? Honestly, I don’t know, but I plan to explore this in a future post.) Bottom line – sports radio was definitely not the right medium to test this “widespread public campaign” concept. Nonetheless, we left the meeting with confidence because at least we tried, failed, and learned from the experience.
It turned out that all wasn’t lost because Lincoln Financial Media, owner of 950 The Fan, also owns the country pop station KYGO, and it has a very solid and faithful base of female listeners. Our account rep had taken the cell phone recycling and fundraising concept to one of the station’s clients, Papa John’s Pizza. All of a sudden, we had a huge company like Papa John’s Pizza that was looking for an environmental edge and loved being the first with a message like this to its customers.
In the past, our team has fought and fought to get out cell phone recycling kits to business and non-profits, place recycling bins in retail stores, and train employees at wireless carriers about recycling. But this idea was truly different. This would be an opportunity for us to partner with a great company, promote the program to the general public, offer people a way to recycle their electronics, and raise money for a great cause. Papa Johns Pizza was even willing to offer its customers free breadsticks for their donation and use the program to fundraise for one of Papa John’s charitable partners, the USO.
Given what’s going on with the economy and how likely charitable organizations are to suffer, everything just seemed to click. Within three hours, our teams had hashed out a plan and set the wheels in motion for the first pick-up campaign for cell phone recycling. And at Cellular Recycler, we finally had a chance to take a campaign directly to the people.
Stay tuned – next I’ll talk about how we designed the collection program.
Shortly after the 2007 NFL football season, I was listening to Sports Radio 950 the fan (now FM 104.3). Now, I have never done radio advertising and we definitely haven’t done it for Cellular Recycler. But, as I was listening, I thought it might be a good venue for letting soccer moms and football dads out there know that there was a new fundraising option instead of the every day popcorn and Christmas wreath sales that both kids and parents (and their parents' officemates)have to endure. The station was nice enough to invite us down to talk about a possible partnership. Admittedly, I didn’t know exactly what we were after, except that I felt it was time to take cell phone recycling to the people through a more widespread public campaign.
Although it was fun to see Scott Hastings and Alfred Williams doing their radio show, it wasn’t a great fit initially. We found out pretty quickly that 90% of their listeners were male. (You might say ‘duh’, but remember that at the time we were new to the whole radio advertising thing.) From our experience of building ground floor collection campaigns with companies like the American Cancer Society, we knew that we really needed to communicate with women in order to have a successful campaign. (Why? Honestly, I don’t know, but I plan to explore this in a future post.) Bottom line – sports radio was definitely not the right medium to test this “widespread public campaign” concept. Nonetheless, we left the meeting with confidence because at least we tried, failed, and learned from the experience.
It turned out that all wasn’t lost because Lincoln Financial Media, owner of 950 The Fan, also owns the country pop station KYGO, and it has a very solid and faithful base of female listeners. Our account rep had taken the cell phone recycling and fundraising concept to one of the station’s clients, Papa John’s Pizza. All of a sudden, we had a huge company like Papa John’s Pizza that was looking for an environmental edge and loved being the first with a message like this to its customers.
In the past, our team has fought and fought to get out cell phone recycling kits to business and non-profits, place recycling bins in retail stores, and train employees at wireless carriers about recycling. But this idea was truly different. This would be an opportunity for us to partner with a great company, promote the program to the general public, offer people a way to recycle their electronics, and raise money for a great cause. Papa Johns Pizza was even willing to offer its customers free breadsticks for their donation and use the program to fundraise for one of Papa John’s charitable partners, the USO.
Given what’s going on with the economy and how likely charitable organizations are to suffer, everything just seemed to click. Within three hours, our teams had hashed out a plan and set the wheels in motion for the first pick-up campaign for cell phone recycling. And at Cellular Recycler, we finally had a chance to take a campaign directly to the people.
Stay tuned – next I’ll talk about how we designed the collection program.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Making it Convenient to be Green
Thought you might want to see a featured piece on Cellular Recycler from Handset & Accessory magazine this month. I don’t know if you guys are on-line subscribers so click here to view the full article.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Metro P Cricket S
The Recession this country faces may actually be helping the low end wireless guys like Metro PCS and Cricket Wireless. Consumers are turning to VOIP at home or lighting up pre paid units to cut costs where they can. An article in the Wall Street Journal recently let its readers know of Metro PCS’s intent to re-use other carriers used phones. Our business is recycling these old phones and giving them new life but two name brand carriers of the pre-paid persuasion are now being more up front about what phones they let light up on their network. One wonders if this sales tactic or ploy is for activation numbers or an advertising effort to keep up with their Cricket Competitors. I am willing to bet we see the ‘green’ go away in my neighborhood and see the bright lights of orange, red and purple signs light up our pre-paid space here in Colorado.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Papa Johns partners with Cellular Recycler
Donate a Cell Phone, Enjoy Free Breadsticks, Support our US Troops and Protect the Environment
Colorado Papa John's pizza locations will be collecting old, unused, broken and still working cell phones this holiday season. Every customer who drops off or gives a cell phone to a Papa John’s delivery driver will be given a gift certificate for a FREE order of breadsticks with their next order. All cell phones will broken down for parts or refurbished by local Boulder company Cellular Recycler. All efforts are taken to protect the environment and prevent unused cell phones from polluting our landfills. Proceeds from the collection of these cell phones will be donated, on behalf of Papa John's Pizza of Colorado, to the Rocky Mountain USO to benefit our US Troops.
WHEN: NOV 5 thru DEC 15
WHO: Papa John’s Delivery Drivers asking for and picking up old, unused, broken and still working cell phones to benefit our US Troops and our precious environment.
MORE INFORMATION: Visit http://www.cellularrecycler.com/papajohns
Colorado Papa John's pizza locations will be collecting old, unused, broken and still working cell phones this holiday season. Every customer who drops off or gives a cell phone to a Papa John’s delivery driver will be given a gift certificate for a FREE order of breadsticks with their next order. All cell phones will broken down for parts or refurbished by local Boulder company Cellular Recycler. All efforts are taken to protect the environment and prevent unused cell phones from polluting our landfills. Proceeds from the collection of these cell phones will be donated, on behalf of Papa John's Pizza of Colorado, to the Rocky Mountain USO to benefit our US Troops.
WHEN: NOV 5 thru DEC 15
WHO: Papa John’s Delivery Drivers asking for and picking up old, unused, broken and still working cell phones to benefit our US Troops and our precious environment.
MORE INFORMATION: Visit http://www.cellularrecycler.com/papajohns
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