Cell Phone Recycling

On November 13, 2007, Lt. Governor Pat Quinn will launch a weeklong cell phone recycling campaign where all used phones and equipment will be donated to victims of domestic violence.

�This recycling drive serves the twofold purpose of making it easy to properly recycle your old cell phone while providing a safe line of communication for victims of domestic violence,� said Quinn, chairman of the Illinois Green Government Coordinating Council. �We want to encourage state employees and everyone to look through their closets and drawers and bring in those old cell phones. There are people out there who need them.�

In honor of America Recycles Day on Nov. 15, the Lt. Governor�s office is joining with Verizon Wireless HopeLine to collect used cell phones, batteries and accessories at state office buildings. The recycling drive will take place from Nov. 13-Nov. 16 and boxes will be placed throughout the James R. Thompson Center in Chicago and in the Stratton and Howlett buildings in Springfield.

Verizon Wireless began its HopeLine program 11 years ago by donating voicemail boxes so that women in shelters could receive confidential messages from their families and prospective employers. Today, the HopeLine program has collected more than four million phones, donated more than $4 million in financial grants and provided more than 45,000 wireless phones to local domestic organizations nationwide.

�Domestic violence knows no socio or economic boundaries, it knows no racial and cultural boundaries, and it knows no geographic boundaries,� said Michael A. McDermott, Executive Director of State Public Policy for Verizon Wireless. �Something as simple as donating an old phone can really make a difference in the life of a domestic violence victim.�

And when a phone cannot be reused, HopeLine goes a step further, recycling it in an environmentally sound way. The program has properly disposed of nearly one million phones and more than 170,000 pounds of batteries.

This is important because our nation�s landfills are increasingly filling with improperly discarded e-waste. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, in 2005 alone, approximately 1.5 to 1.9 million tons of unwanted electronics were improperly discarded, while only 345,000 to 379,000 tons were recycled.

Quinn and McDermott will be joined at the press conference by Kristina Kaar, vice president of the Illinois Recycling Association Board of Directors, and Maria del Socorro Pesqueira, president and CEO of Mujeres Latinas en Accion, a Chicago shelter for victims of domestic violence.

For more information please visit: www.GreenSolutions.il.gov.