SAN DIEGO, Jan. 15, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- On the heels
of a holiday season in which one in three* Americans said they
planned on giving electronics as gifts, ecoATM® (www.ecoatm.com),
the nationwide network of automated electronics recycling kiosks,
today announced it has officially recycled more than two million
phones and devices in its four-year history. Pointing to a rising
trend in Americans' interest in electronics recycling, it took just
nine months for ecoATM to double the number of devices it has
processed; the company announced it had recycled one million
devices in April 2013.
(Photo:
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ecoATM's more than 800 kiosks, which are located in shopping
malls and retailers, recycle consumer electronics -- including
mobile phones, tablets and MP3 players -- to keep them out of
landfills or from languishing in desk drawers, and provide cash
payments as an incentive for consumers to recycle. Customers can
also choose to donate a portion or all of their cash payment to a
number of charity partners. Plus, many consumers use the cash they
get from ecoATM to support their local economies by spending it
right there in the location where they recycled their
devices.
"More people across the country are realizing the hidden value
in the phones and devices they've been tossing into junk drawers
for years, and with only 20 percent of cell phones being recycled
today, there is incredible potential for millions of Americans,"
said Mark Bowles, ecoATM's founder
and Chief Marketing Officer. "Our goal is to offer consumers an
opportunity to convert their clutter into cash while doing the
right thing for the environment by keeping tons of toxic waste out
of our nation's landfills."
ecoATM: Making a Dent in the eWaste Problem
In
addition to the cash value that consumers have gained by recycling
their devices through ecoATM, the collection of two million devices
has enabled the recovery or reuse of:
- 500,000 pounds of devices – three space shuttles worth
of plastics, metals and potentially toxic materials
- 70,000 pounds of copper – enough to create a second
Statue of Liberty (made of 62,000 pounds of copper) and still have
extra
- 1,544 pounds of silver – enough to create 22,540
American Eagle silver dollar coins (made of .0685 pounds of
silver)
Devices of All Stripes
In the course of collecting more than two million devices,
ecoATM has processed or recycled virtually every type of phone ever
made or sold in the United States.
Of the more than 4,000 different devices ecoATM can recognize and
recycle, the most recycled device in its history is the Apple
iPhone 4 32GB.
ecoATM kiosks accept devices of any era or condition and use a
worldwide auction system to offer consumers competitive prices,
ranging from a few dollars for older models to a few hundred for
newer smartphones depending upon condition. Some very old phones
may not be worth anything, but with ecoATM you can be assured that
they will be responsibly recycled.
To learn more about ecoATM or to find a kiosk, visit
www.ecoatm.com.
*National Retail Federation 2013 data
About ecoATM
ecoATM, a subsidiary of Outerwall Inc. (Nasdaq: OUTR), is the
first company to create an automated self-serve kiosk system to buy
back old phones, tablets or MP3 players for cash. ecoATM uses
patented, advanced machine vision, electronic diagnostics, and
artificial intelligence to evaluate electronics. ecoATM's
eCycling stations provide a convenient trade-in solution with
features that validate sellers' identities and deter the sale of
stolen phones, and the company is known for its collaboration with
national, state, and local law-enforcement groups in combating
mobile phone theft through innovative use of technology and
education
(http://www.ecoatm.com/law-enforcement/).
ecoATM holds both Responsible Recycling (R2) and ISO14001
certification, confirming the company's commitment to maintaining
the highest standards of electronics recycling, as well as ISO27001
certification for information and personal data security. See
http://www.ecoatm.com/how-it-works/ for a video of how an ecoATM
kiosk works. For more information, visit www.ecoatm.com and
for more information about Outerwall Inc. please visit
www.outerwall.com.
SOURCE ecoATM