Cell phones contain toxic metals that can pollute the environment and threaten human health. Cell phones are potentially hazardous waste because they contain lead, mercury, cadmium and arsenic. If thrown in the trash and sent to incinerators or landfills, environmental contamination can occur from combustion and leaching into soil and groundwater.

When recycled responsibly, the metals can be put back into circulation, decreasing the need for new metal mining. Most of the phones and accessories received can be refurbished, reset, and reused. If a phone is broken, its working parts are removed. "New" phones are eventually assembled from the usable parts of different phones.

Nine of every 10 consumers have at least one old, unused mobile phone and there are more than 500 million used cell phones in the U.S. sitting in people's drawers or in our landfills.

There are about 270 million cell phone users in the United States. Every year more than 140 million cell phones are discarded in the country, most of them going to landfills or incinerators. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, for every one million phones recycled, enough energy could be saved to provide electricity to 2,000 U.S. homes a year.

Sadly, less than 2% of old cell phones are being recycled today. Cell phone recycling and wireless recycling programs keep valuable materials out of landfills, including an estimated $630,000 of precious metals from circuit boards, and enough copper from phone chargers to recover the Statue of Liberty, twice.

Corporate America is playing its role to promote cell phone recycling. In 2008, Sprint collected more than 3 million phones--about 34% of its sales. In 2007, its percentage of collections to sales was 22%.

You can make a difference with cell phone recycling. Help our environment and the planet.