Verizon: Recycled Cell Phones Conserve Environment

Leveraging its products and services through concerns about the environment in this presidential election year, the nation’s second-largest wireless carrier today is releasing information about a series of so-called “green” initiatives that are designed to protect the planet.

 

Officials from Verizon (News - Alert) Wireless say they’re encouraging attendees to this week’s national Democratic convention in Denver to recycle their cell phones – an effort that could see 100 million recycled devices power nearly 200,000 U.S. homes for a year, according to the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

 

“We’re not there yet, but the good news is more and more old cell phones are being recycled every year,” said Melanie Braidich, a regional president for Verizon Wireless. “Since we launched our national cell phone recycling program in 2001, we have kept more than 200 tons of electronic waste out of landfills.”

 

Through its “HopeLine program,” Verizon says, wireless phones and equipment are disposed of in an environmentally friendly way or refurbished for reuse, with proceeds and devices benefiting survivors of domestic violence.

 

Today, with high fuel costs and a nation teetering on the brink of what many economists call a looming recession, environmental issues are taking center stage.

 

So-called “green” technologies come in a number of forms – and as TMC President and Group Editor-in-Chief Rich Tehrani writes, some companies do a better job than others at achieving the “lofty goals” of the environmentally conscious.

 

“Case in point is Mitel (News - Alert),” Tehrani wrote in one recent blog entry. “I recently had a discussion with Doug Michaelides, the company’s vice president of marketing, where we discussed the Mitel’s alliance with SUN to deliver UC (unified communications) solutions. He pointed out in our meeting that of course UC is a green technology to begin with as it reduces commuting costs.”

 

According to Tehrani’s conversation with Michaelides, a Sun/Mitel UC solution reduces power consumption per person from 90 watts to nine.

 

“So if you are looking to go UC and do it as environmentally responsibly as possible, you may want to check out the Mitel/Sun combo live and in person,” Tehrani writes. “On second thought, stay at home and do it over the Web.”

 

Which is exactly the strategy of Michael Shell, founder and chief executive officer of www.gogreentube.com.

 

Based in its design on the popular YouTube (News - Alert) site – with videos from comedians such as George Carlin and Will Ferrell, as well as news spots about the environment, TV ads, cartoons, user-generated content, movie clips, videos of presentations and more – the Internet destination is shaping up to become an online hub for conservationists.

 

Since its launch in June, the site has seen as many as 30,000 unique visitors in a month, and Shell says he expects the tally to double in August.

 

Backed by Shell and four others – including a programmer, marketing consultant, Web master and Shell’s own uncle, a Texas-based president of the company – the site is designed to reach a global audience, its creator says.

 

“I was trying to figure out the most effective way to reach a global audience, to help everything go green and educate people on how to be more environmentally friendly, so I put two and two together and realized that consumers drive the movement,” Shell told TMCNet during a recent interview. “As more companies go green, there are more green products available, and that’s because consumers become more educated, create more demand for those products.”

 

Verizon officials are taking advantage of this week’s widely anticipated convention to tout their own “green” offerings and tips, such as paperless billing, unplugging cell phone chargers when not in use and saving fuel by taking the best routes to and around Denver by relying on a the company’s own GPS systems.