Kyocera, Second Wave Recycling Start Cell Phone Takeback Plan

Cellphone firm Kyocera Communications Inc. has launched a free nationwide cellphone recycling and takeback program.

The program, facilitated by fellow San Diego-based firm SecondWave Recycling, will manage mobile phones of any brand and donate $1 to Cell Phones for Soldiers for every four phones recycled for their raw materials. Cell Phones for Soldiers is a nonprofit organization that provides cost-free communication devices to active-duty military personnel, according to a news release.

Nearly 2 billion mobile phones are sold annually, and only 13 percent are recycled in the United States, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

E-Cycle, the New Albany, Ohio-based mobile phone recycling firm, reports that the average person in upgrades their cell phone every 18 months, which leads to 130 million devices discarded in the United States. The firm claims that 70 percent of mobile devices today can be reused.

Kyocera Communications, the U.S. subsidiary of the Kyoto, Japan-based firm Kyocera Corp., said it will provide shipping containers for the phones at no charge. SecondWave Recycling will collect the phones and break them down for the recyclable raw materials.