On September 22nd at the Clinton Global Initiative’s Tenth Annual Meeting, Outerwall Inc. 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.
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.