BELLEVUE, Wash., Sept. 22, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Today at the
Clinton Global Initiative's Tenth Annual Meeting, Outerwall Inc.
(Nasdaq: OUTR) announced that it expects to collect at least two
million pounds of mobile phones, tablets, and other devices and
accessories over the next three years through its ecoATM® recycling
kiosks, which accept electronics for reuse and recycling, helping
to divert e-waste from landfills.
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Industry experts estimate that each year 15 pounds of e-waste
are generated per person worldwide. Consumer demand for mobile
phones remains strong. More than 1.8 billion mobile phones were
sold worldwide in 2013 (Source: Gartner, Inc.), and Apple
announced more than four million iPhone 6 and 6 Plus pre-orders
were received within the first 24 hours of its announcement earlier
this month.
"We can all make a tremendous impact if each person commits to
reducing their personal e-waste footprint," said J. Scott Di Valerio, CEO of Outerwall. "ecoATM
was created to make it easy and rewarding for people to sell their
devices for reuse and recycle, thereby reducing their impact on the
environment."
Outerwall's sustainability efforts extend to the company's
Redbox® entertainment and Coinstar® money services
businesses. Redbox reuses DVDs, works with recyclers to shred
and recycle discs and minimizes waste by selling used DVDs to third
parties or donating them to nonprofit organizations. Coinstar's
network of coin counting kiosks helps keep coins in circulation,
reducing the amount of new coins minted. Over the past 20+
years, Coinstar has processed more than 650 billion coins.
"We are so pleased to see Outerwall's commitment to
ensure that electronic devices, currency and
media are in circulation and in use for the full duration of
their useful lives--and then their component
materials recycled responsibly," said Katherine V. Smith, executive director,
Boston College Center for Corporate
Citizenship. "This model can help address the digital
divide in mobile computing and reduce landfill waste--this
is great for our society and our planet," Smith
added.
ecoATM: Rewarding Reuse and Recycling of Mobile
Devices
Outerwall's network of approximately 1,100 ecoATM kiosks (as of
7/30/14), located in shopping malls and select retailers
nationwide, recycle consumer electronics and keep them out of
landfills by incentivizing reuse and recycling. ecoATM is able to
find a second life for approximately 75 percent of devices
collected. For the remaining 25 percent, ecoATM partners with
certified e-waste reclamation facilities to ensure those materials
are responsibly reused and recycled.
"Many of our retailer partners are taking significant strides
toward integrating sustainability into their business operations,"
said Maria Stipp, president of
ecoATM. "These efforts confirm our strategic alignment and
underscore the potential we have to work together to make e-waste
recycling easy, safe, and convenient for consumers."
ecoATM kiosks identify, evaluate, price and accept devices of
any era or condition and use a worldwide auction system to offer
consumers competitive prices ranging from a few dollars to a few
hundred dollars. ecoATM holds both Responsible Recycling (R2) and
ISO 14001 certification, confirming the company's commitment to
maintaining the highest standards of electronics recycling, as well
as ISO 27001 certification for information and personal data
security. ecoATM is also a member of the Consumer Electronics
Association and the Device Renewal Forum, and is a founding member
of the Electronics Recycling Coordination Clearing House (ERCC).
These industry groups are focused on defining the best practices
for e-waste recycling. See ecoatm.com/how-it-works for a
video of how an ecoATM kiosk works.
To learn more about ecoATM or find a kiosk, visit, ecoatm.com.
For more information on Outerwall's sustainability efforts, visit
outerwall.com/responsibility.
About Outerwall Inc.
Outerwall Inc.
(Nasdaq: OUTR) has more than 20 years of experience creating some
of the most profitable spaces for its retail partners. The company
mission is to create a better everyday by delivering breakthrough
kiosk experiences that delight consumers and generate revenue for
retailers. As the company that brought consumers Redbox®
entertainment, Coinstar® money services, and ecoATM® electronics
recycling kiosks, Outerwall is leading the next generation of
automated retail and paving the way for inventive, scalable
businesses. Outerwall TM kiosks are in neighborhood
grocery stores, drug stores, mass merchants, malls, and other
retail locations in the United
States, Canada,
Puerto Rico, the United Kingdom, and Ireland. Learn more at outerwall.com.
About ecoATM
ecoATM, an Outerwall brand, 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 eCycling stations
provide a convenient trade-in solution with features that validate
sellers' identities and deter the sale of stolen phones, and the
company collaborates with national, state, and local
law-enforcement groups in combating mobile phone theft through
innovative use of technology and
education (ecoatm.com/law-enforcement).
About the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI)
Established
in 2005 by President Bill Clinton,
the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI)—an initiative of the Bill,
Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation—convenes global leaders to
create and implement innovative solutions to the world's most
pressing challenges. CGI Annual Meetings have brought together more
than 180 heads of state, 20 Nobel Prize laureates, and hundreds of
leading CEOs, heads of foundations and NGOs, major philanthropists,
and members of the media. To date, members of the CGI community
have made more than 2,800 commitments, which are already improving
the lives of more than 430 million people in over 180 countries.
When fully funded and implemented, these commitments will be valued
at $103 billion.
CGI also convenes CGI America, a meeting focused on
collaborative solutions to economic recovery in the United States, and CGI University (CGI U),
which brings together undergraduate and graduate students to
address pressing challenges in their community or around the world.
For more information, visit clintonglobalinitiative.org and follow
us on Twitter @ClintonGlobal and Facebook at
facebook.com/clintonglobalinitiative.
Safe Harbor for Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements in this press release are "forward-looking
statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "expect" and "will" and
variations of such words, and future-looking and similar
expressions identify forward-looking statements, but their absence
does not mean that the statement is not forward-looking.
Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future events,
results, performance, or conditions. The forward-looking statements
in this report, including those relating to the cell phone and
recycled electronics markets, and the performance of the ecoATM
business, are only predictions based on the current intent and
expectations of management, and actual events, results,
performance, and conditions may be materially different from those
expressed or implied in those statements. Differences may result
from actions taken by Outerwall or ecoATM, as well as from risks
and uncertainties beyond their control. Such risks and
uncertainties include, but are not limited to, competition
from other companies who purchase used electronics, actions
resulting from federal, state, local and other laws and regulations
or taken by governing bodies, as well as the ability to
achieve the strategic and financial objectives of Outerwall's entry
into new businesses, such as ecoATM. The foregoing list of
risks and uncertainties is illustrative, but by no means
exhaustive. For more information on factors that may affect
Outerwall, please review "Risk Factors" described in Outerwall's
most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent Quarterly
Reports on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange
Commission (the "SEC"), as well as other public filings with the
SEC. These forward-looking statements reflect Outerwall's
expectations as of the date of this report. Outerwall undertakes no
obligation to update the information provided herein.
SOURCE Outerwall Inc.