What To Do With Old Cell Phones and Electronics

You’ve just upgraded to the new Android smartphone or iPhone of your dreams. Yet, that trusty smartphone that just came off contract is still hanging around. It would work fine if it had a service plan, which it does not. You don’t need it. You don’t want it any more. You wish it would just leave. But it won’t. It has nowhere else to go.

So, you keep it around and the years go by. Eventually, you open a drawer and there it is. In your surprise you just want to exclaim, “Are you still here?”

Oh, you hurt its feelings. Well, you would have if it had feelings. It’s just a chunk of inert technology now. The battery is long dead and gone. No point in trying to recharge it. This model is too old to do much of anything even if it had power. What a shame. When you think that this marvel of electronics was once worth hundreds of dollars, you start to wonder, “Could I have sold it and at least gotten some cash?”

Oh, you could have done better than that. You might have pocketed a nice crisp Benjamin if you’d spent 10 or 15 minutes online right after you made the upgrade between phones. Yep, $100 or maybe even more for a few minutes work. But noooooo. You couldn’t be bothered even trying to sell your late model working cell phone. It just seemed like too much trouble to figure out how to do it and probably a lot of grief trying to make the sale.

Well, here’s some good news for next time. There are companies that recycle old cell phones and electronics that are chafing at the bit to make you a competitive offer for your smartphone. No nonsense with trying to run an auction. No waiting for people to show up at your door and wasting your time just looking. This is all done online with no muss, no fuss, no grief.

Here’s how it works. You simply find the make and model of your device using the search box and the aptly named “Get Paid!” button. You’ll then have to check a few buttons for questions like working or not working, screen damage, water damage, broken parts, condition from like new to heavy wear, and which accessories you still have. Even if you are a little groggy this should take no more than 5 or 10 minutes. Then click the “Find Top Cash Offers” button.

You are likely to get multiple offers, because this particular operation is an aggregator for recyclers who actually make the offers and buy your phone. The advantage of using this service is that you don’t have to hunt down multiple buyers and get offers from each individually. That can take hours or more. You know those travel sites that give you multiple airline flights or hotel deals? It works something like that. It’s one stop shopping to get cash offers for your cell phone and other electronics.

Did you notice the question about screen damage? It’s not a disqualifier. Companies really will buy a cell phone with a cracked screen. So, if you have water damage, cracked screen, broken parts, or lots of apparent wear and tear on your phone, give it a try anyway. You might be surprised by how much money you can get for that piece of.... well... that unfortunate mobile device.

Say you get 5 offers for your phone from five different buyers. You can just pick the highest price immediately and click the “Get Paid” button. Or, you can choose to read the reviews about the companies you have in mind before you commit. Either way, once you’ve accepted the offer you are done for the night.

What happens next is that you’ll get a pre-paid shipping label or even a pre-paid shipping box delivered to your door. Either way, you will not have to pay to send in your device. The buyer takes care of that. Now take a few minutes and pack it up. Then drop it at the shipper next time you go out. Your work, my friend, is done.

When your equipment arrives at the buyer’s site, it will be unpacked, inspected and tested. As long as it agrees with what you described, the offer holds and you’ll get paid what you agreed to. You can have them mail a check or save the paper and get a deposit into your PayPal account. Your choice. Either way, you’ll be richer in a couple of weeks or so.

Here’s some even better news. This service also works for tablets, e-readers, game consoles, MP3 players and digital cameras as well as a wide variety of feature phones and smartphones. As you might suspect, the more valuable your device was originally and the sooner you get an offer, the more you’ll be paid. Obviously, if it’s too old there isn’t any value left. But don’t jump to the conclusion that you have nothing worth money. Gather up your items and spend some fun time online getting offers for your old cell phones and electronics right now.

Dotster Eco-Friendly Hosting Commitment

Anyone doing business on the Internet in the last 10 years has heard of Dotster, and the Dotster family of companies including Domain.com. When you think of Dotster, you probably think of domain name registration services. Dotster is also a hosting company offering everything from basic email hosing service for under a dollar a month all the way up to enterprise level website hosting. What I’ll bet you didn’t know is that Dotster is a major player in the realm of eco-friendly hosting.


Eco-Friendly or “green” hosting is growing in popularity among individuals and organizations that want to contribute to a better environment. The conventional wisdom is that green means more expensive when the term is applied to just about anything. That’s not true anymore. You can have Dotster eco-friendly hosting for just $5.75 a month with no long term commitment. Sign up for longer term plans and it gets even cheaper.

Dotster has a multifaceted approach to their eco-friendly hosting initiative. It starts with buying wind energy to power their web hosting servers. What they do is purchase enough renewable energy credits to offset all the power used for their hosting and even more. The commitment is 150% renewable energy offset for all Dotster web hosting servers.

Dotster buys its renewable energy credits from the Bonneville Environmental Foundation, a Portland, Oregon-based nonprofit organization. The revenues they receive from selling their BEF carbon offsets or renewable energy credits is used to support building new renewable energy projects that include solar, wind and biomass power sources. Socially responsible companies and individuals can both buy these energy credits from various organizations nationwide who fund sustainable energy projects.

Substituting wind energy for coal, natural gas or even nuclear power is a good idea. An even better idea is to find ways to use less energy to get the same job done. Dotster does this by constantly upgrading their hosting infrastructure to improve both reliability and energy efficiency. They buy less power, which reduces the amount they have to charge their customers. Less power means less demand from the grid, so that those new wind generators can handle other loads and further reduce the need for carbon-based energy sources.

This attitude of ecologically responsible behavior is infused throughout the Dotster corporate culture. They donate their used computer equipment to programs for recycling and technology education for the disadvantaged rather than dumping it in a landfill to slowly leach out toxic substances. The office staff is encouraged to reduce printing, use paperless billing, recycle batteries and ditch paper cups in favor of Dotster reusable bottles.

As the icing on the cake, Dotster will plant a tree for you when you become a new Dotster web hosting company. The trees come from Trees for the Future, an organization dedicated to sustainable agroforestry that has already planted 50 million trees worldwide.

If you are on the lookout for web hosting that is more in tune with your personal philosophy as well as reliable, feature rich and an excellent deal, take a closer look at Dotster.com Web Hosting and Domain Name Registration services.

Clod Computing Challenges The Cloud

Cloud computing is making a name for itself by challenging the cost of running traditional corporate data centers. But just as the cloud is reaching critical mass, a new challenger appears with an even lower cost model. They call it clod computing.

Just what is the “clod” and why is it cheaper? The business model is based on reducing infrastructure cost by getting computing resources for free. As explained by startup vendor Chip-On-A-Shingle, “A clod is simply a cluster of unwanted computers and peripherals all hooked together to create some really awesome processing.”

It’s true that there is a surplus of computers headed for landfills simply because they are no longer the new shiny thing. Most computers go to their graves perfectly functional. They’ve simply gotten too slow due to lack of memory or processing power to keep up with the latest software applications. Some are tossed for simple ugliness as UV exposure turns their once cream colored cases a nasty shade of orange.

“What gave me the idea,” said J. Unkmann, a pioneer in the new technology of OaaP (Obsolescence as a Platform), “was when I saw all these computers sitting out by the curb on trash day. It seemed like every other house had a tower or a monitor. They didn’t even bother putting them in the recycling bins. I got to thinking about all that processing power going to waste and decided to pick up a few and see what I could do with them.”

Unkmann’s breakthrough was in networking dozens, then hundreds, of old computer CPUs and selling the processing capability as a service. As he points out, “Any old 486 may not have much throughput, but when you have hundreds or thousands of cores you’ve got yourself a super-computer. I don’t dare take my array out of the country. The government has laws against exporting this advanced technology.”

Instead, Unkmann and a legion of similar visionaries are offering their services to anyone from caffeinated gamers to corporate IT departments. Unkmann’s below-ground data center has wooden racks filled from floor to ceiling with everything from old IBM PCs to brightly colored iMacs. The primary cost of the operation is electricity. “Heat could also be a problem, he remarked, but we live up North so it’s cold most of the time. Security isn’t much of a issue, either. Mom’s got a mean dog upstairs and the storm cellar door has been rusted shut for years.”

In addition to processor cycles, Chip-On-A-Shingle offers scalable storage as a service. “You can see how extensive our disk array is,” noted Unkmann pointing at a shelf stacked high with hard drives. “Some of these are only 40 GB or so, but people are throwing out computers with 250 GB drives these days. Just call up and tell me how many you want and I’ll plug ‘em in.”

Costs for clod computing are running considerably lower than those quoted by well known cloud service providers. J. Unkmann has flexible financing available that includes anything from PayPal contributions to bartering arrangements. “I’m most interested in PoD (Pizza on Demand),” he commented.

Connectivity arrangement are flexible, too. “We can wire up just about anything you want. Dial-up works just fine if you are on a tight budget. I’ve got maybe a thousand modem cards in a box over there. We can also go wireless. Just send me a time card for my prepaid phone.”

Major carriers and cloud service providers have been loath to embrace clod computing so far. But as the recession drags on, breakthrough ideas such as this may come to fill a very low end niche in the marketplace, until the economy picks up... hopefully by next April 1.

Sell Your Free Cell Phone For Cash

You were smart about where you bought your new cell phone and got a state-of-the-art smartphone for free with your service order. You didn’t pay more for service because you know those plans are the same price no matter where you get them. It’s the price of the phone that varies from store to store.

Now your contract has expired and it’s a good time to upgrade to a newer model phone. Once again, you want to shop around and get the one you want free or at a deeply discounted price. But, what about that phone that just came off contract? What are you going to do with it?

Most people toss their old cell phones in a drawer, figuring they’re too good to throw in the trash and might be useful someday. We’ll at least they don’t go in the trash. There are materials inside those phones that become toxic when they decay in the environment. But once in the drawer, a cell phone rarely goes back into service. Hey, it was a free phone so who cares? It’s not worth anything, right?

Nothing could be further from the truth. Just because YOU didn’t pay for the phone doesn’t mean it has a lower value. That marvel of technology may have cost hundreds of dollars to manufacture. You took good care if it and everything works just as well as it did a couple of years ago when it was new. That gadget has residual value that you can extract, once again because you are smart.

Here’s the smart thing to do with a free phone that has just come off of contract. Move as fast as you can to sell your cellphone for cash online. Technology has a limited shelf life. The older it gets, the less it is worth. The very best you can do is sell your unwanted phone immediately after you are done using it. Pocket the cash and use it for whatever you want. After all, you’re getting your new phone free too.

It’s an easy process. All you have to do is look up the particular make and model phone you have, check a few boxes about the condition of the device and what accessories you still have, and request an offer. You’ll get an instant online offer for your phone. If you like what you see, then click through and request a postage paid shipping box so you can send it in at no cost to you. Once your phone has been checked out, you’ll get a check in the mail. Mmmm. Money in the mailbox for something you didn’t pay for. Does it get any sweeter that this?

What about new phones that never went into service? You got a holiday or birthday present from a well-meaning relative, but you have no use for this thing. You don’t want to pay for a contract to put it into service. What to do?

A simple “thank you” will suffice. Then, when you are sure they are not looking, check the value of your gift and send it in for cash. Since it is brand new, it will be worth more than one that’s been used for a year or two and is no longer the latest model. You could be looking at a hundred bucks or more in your pocket if you act quickly.

Here’s another little secret to getting money for stuff you don’t want. Gazelle also offers to buy electronic games, navigation devices, digital cameras, laptop computers and many other recent vintage technology gear. It’s a virtual gold mine right after the flurry of holiday gift giving has subsided. It’s also a way you can regularly get cash for stuff you are upgrading any time of year. Who knew that free electronic gadgets could be worth so much?

Recycle Your Cell Phone To Save A Gorilla

There are many good reasons to recycle old cellphones, but one of the best is to save the Eastern Lowland Mountain Gorilla in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

How is it that what you do with a cell phone affects gorillas in Africa? It has to do with our fragile and tightly coupled ecosystem. Here’s what happens. Cellphones are constructed from various electronic components. One of these is a tantalum capacitor. Tantalum is a rare and valuable metal that enables once physically large capacitors to be made small enough to squeeze into those slim cell phone cases. You get tantalum from columbite tantalite, a metallic ore called Coltan for short. Eighty percent of the world’s Coltan reserves are found in Africa, with the majority of the deposits located within the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Ah, you are starting to see the connection. Here’s how the gorillas get involved. It’s illegal to mine for Coltan in the Congo, but with the material going for as much as $400 a kilogram, such mining continues on a large scale. Forests are cleared to make way for the mining and paved roads are installed. The gorillas become exposed and easy targets for bush meat hunters who sell the meat to feed miners and rebel armies in control of the area. More than half of the mountain gorilla population has been lost in just the last five years. It’s also thought that an entire population of elephants has also been wiped out in this activity.

So what we have is a situation where demand for a rare mineral has mushroomed to support the hundreds of millions of cell phones manufactured for use worldwide. High prices for Coltan have promoted the destruction of wild habitat and the killing of endangered gorillas and elephants who once enjoyed a protected environment. Is this just the price we have to pay for technology or can something be done?

Something is being done. The Jane Goodall Institute and Melbourne Zoo in Australia have joined forces to create a mobile phone recycling program called “They’re Calling on You.”You can visit the zoo to collect a postage paid recycling satchel or download and print a postage paid label to send your phone in. They’ve even got a program for corporations to donate fleets of old mobile phones. If your school would like to help, you can integrate the program into your curriculum.

They’re indeed calling on you and, if you live in Australia, you have the unique honor of being able to answer this call. But what about the rest of the world? Is there anything we can do?

Absolutely, there is. In the United States, Gazelle offers a cell phone and electronic gadgets recycling program that also includes a free mailer. This one goes beyond mobile phones to include electronic games, computers and even photography gear. They will even pay you for recent vintage equipment in good working order.

Elsewhere around the world, look for local or large scale recycling programs. But whatever you do, don’t toss that cell phone in the trash. That only compounds the problem. In addition to the damage done by creating the product in the first place, electronic components degrade in the environment and leach out toxic chemicals that can pollute the soil and water table.

The recycling programs offer a double benefit. They not only prevent damage from decaying products, they also reduce the need for mining and manufacturing by refurbishing the old phones for use in disadvantaged communities. Devices too old or not functional can be ground up by reclaimers to recycle the minerals to make new phones.

Listen! They’re really calling you... and it’s a very important call!

Note: Photo of gorilla courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Cash In Old Gadgets To Buy New Gadgets

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are almost upon us. Just look at all the new smartphones and other electronic gadgets that are going on sale, if they aren’t already. Exciting, isn’t it? Yet we know that times are uncertain and that we should really think about how we are going to pay for those shiny new things. Here’s an idea: Get your old stuff to pay for your new stuff!

Sounds a bit fanciful, but it can work. How? It’s because we all collect... make that hoard... electronics and photography gear of all types. Never mind that we aren’t using this gear anymore. We just have it around. It’s too good to throw away and too much hassle to sell, so there it sits. What we don’t consider is that there is a veritable savings account worth of value in all that unused equipment. There’s your cash source to buy the new, new gadgets this holiday season. Now, if there was only a way to tap it.

You’re in luck! There is a fast and easy way to convert your unwanted gadgets to cash. It’s an online service provided by Gazelle, a leader in recycling high technology gear. What they do is make you an offer based on the current market value of your items. If you elect to sell, you get a free postage paid mailer that you pack up and drop off at the shipper. At the other end, Gazelle will evaluate each item for operation and condition. Once checked out, they send you a check. Now when you get that bill for the new flat screen HDTV or video game, you’ve got the funds to cover it. It’s recycling at its best.

This process actually works all year long, but it’s particularly valuable right now. That’s because we tend to buy big time for ourselves and others through December 24, with the heartburn of credit card bills coming due in January or February. There’s no time to waste.

Start scouring the house and even those desk drawers at work. Look in the bottom drawers, especially. That’s where unused gadgets go to hibernate indefinitely. Get a big bag or box and start filling it with cell phones, video games, laptop computers, movies, MP3 players, digital cameras, PDAs, gaming consoles, GPS devices, camcorders, desktop computers, LCD monitors, calculators, camera lenses, satellite radios, external drives, streaming media, home audio equipment, projectors and Blu-Ray players. I’ll bet you’ve got anywhere between a modest box to half-a-room full.

The next step is to get price offers for each item. Consider it a game that pays. Perhaps you can engage family members or co-workers to help evaluate a massive tech collection, especially if they think they might benefit from the proceeds. Find your item through a search on the Gazelle site. Find the exact model you have and then check the radio buttons for functionality, condition and available accessories. Click the “Calculate” button and you’ll see how much they’ll pay you. I just tried a Nikon camera lens and saw I could sell it for $90. If you think that price is fair and want to cash-in, click the orange “Add to Box” button to lock in the offer. Then move on to the next item.

Procrastination is not to your advantage. Technology, like milk and most everything else, loses value over time. Chances are that you’ll get a better offer today than you will in a week or a month from now as your unused gear just gets more and more obsolete. Word to the wise!

Once you have evaluated your collection and see the now substantial total offer, all you need is that pre-paid shipping box. You get that by clicking on the “Checkout” button. When your container arrives, pack each item carefully using recycled newspaper or other soft packing material and sent it in. Congratulations, the hard work is done! Now it’s just a matter of waiting for the moola.

Can it get any easier? Not unless someone came over, ransacked your place while you watched TV, and peeled off a roll of bills on their way out. This is the next best thing. It takes minimal effort compared to running ads, dealing with people at the door or dragging everything through the auction process. When you’re done, you have cash in hand, the satisfaction of recycling things you don’t need anymore, plus all that extra shelf and drawer space you’ll need for your new acquisitions.

Are you motivated to start the process? Gather your gear and get recycling offers for your gadgets now. Those big sales are about to start!

Don’t Be Part Of The Impending Worldwide E-Waste Crisis

Most of have heard by now that it’s not a good idea to just throw your old electronic devices in the trash. The awareness of hazardous e-waste has gotten to the point where some office supply and electronics or hardware stores have a big box where you can drop off your unwanted cell phones, old laptop batteries or compact fluorescent light bulbs. Communities have places where you can take your old computer or special recycling days a couple of times a year just for electronics. Savvy businesses and consumers also know that you can sell your unwanted electronics for cash rather than giving it the old heave-ho. So, why is the United Nations warning of a coming crises in e-waste?

This impending threat is coming countries that are now in a rapid development period as well as established patterns in the U.S. and other developed countries. China, India, Africa and Latin America are expected to be dumping large quantities of e-waste in the next 10 years. Why? Primarily because these countries are also becoming big consumers of electronic gadgets. E-waste just from discarded mobile phones will be 7x higher in 2020 than it was in 2007 in China. In India it will be much worse at 18x higher. There are similar large increases predicted for e-waste from old computers and televisions.

Much of this increase in e-waste volume will surely come from the modernization of these now developing countries. But some of it also comes from the industrialized world dumping their electronic trash in other countries. Nigeria, in particular, has long been an international landfill for electronic waste from the United States, Europe, Japan and South Korea, among other countries.

So, what’s the big deal with dumping e-waste as long as it isn’t in your back yard? First of all, it’s just not right to be victimizing these poverty stricken people who don’t even realize the toxicity of the materials they’re handling. Your cell phone or computer isn’t going to disintegrate in your home and poison you. But when these devices are smashed apart and cooked to try and recover valuable elements like gold and silver or left to decay in a trash heap, they release toxic chemicals that can ruin your health.

Do you really think that the global ecosphere keeps the bad chemicals over there and completely away from our air and water? Think again. The atmosphere doesn’t observe any national boundaries. It goes around and around the Earth, collecting dust and vapors from one country and blowing them into or raining them down upon other countries. The oceans work the same way. Dump it in the water way over there and you’ll eventually find it washing up on your shores too.

I think it’s good that an international body like the United Nations is sounding the alarm about the growing e-waste problem. We’re long past the day when we can turn a blind eye to pollution no matter where it occurs. This will almost certainly require an international effort to tackle the problem, especially in areas where there is so little awareness of the danger and few resources to properly recycle these materials. Companies like Apple have taken the initiative of offering a free recycling service for your old computer when you buy one of their new ones. That would be a good approach for all manufacturers.

In the meantime, we can all do our parts by ensuring that we turn our old unwanted electronic equipment over to companies that have the capacity to properly dismantle and process the cases and electronic circuit boards. Plus, don’t forget that many electronic gadgets can be easily sold for cash so that they’ll get a new lease on life and you’ll get money you can use for your next high tech acquisition.

There’s $$$ In E-Waste

Did you know there’s a $100 bill in that trash you set out at the curb? Oh, I’m sorry. The truck’s already come. Looks like that c-note is headed for the landfill. It will probably be found by future generations, but be so decayed by then that it will have no value. Pity about all the poisons that will have leached into the environment.

What am I talking about? E-waste. That’s short for electronic waste. Ah, I’ll bet you can guess what’s going on now. The $100 bill in the trash wasn’t in the form of a greenback. It represents the value of that smartphone or navigation system you chucked because you bought a newer model. You can set it out for pickup or you can send it in for cash. It’s your choice.

Electronic waste has been a problem since the first radios and TVs started showing up at the city dump. Nobody made a big deal of it because the early electronic appliances were big, expensive and not likely to be trashed until after decades of service. There was also a lot less environmental awareness back then. That doesn’t mean that these things were benign trash like old chairs or broken window panes. Those metal chassis were chock full of lead solder and chemical filled electrolytic capacitors. Some had batteries with paper wrappers that quickly decomposed.

Fast forward to today’s electronics. Cell phones have a life cycle of around two years each. That’s how long it takes for the contract to expire. With the rapid advance of technology, many people want a new phone every couple of years just to get the latest goodies. They can often get a cell phone for free when they sign a new contract.

Computers don’t fare much better, especially in business. Few microprocessor boards ever wear out. They go obsolete years before they would have failed in service. All those circuit boards are still full of lead solder and components made of various elements. Some, like gold, are valuable. Many are toxic and tend to leach out when exposed to water over many years. Think of the millions and millions of electronic circuit boards piling up as electronic waste, and you begin to sense the potential size of the cleanup problem downstream.

Just as tragic is the residual value of the electronic devices being casually tossed away. Some people may take a stab at selling their old gear using ads on craigslist or eBay. For most, though, that's just way too much effort for the expected reward. After all, that old gadget doesn’t have any value to them since they aren’t using it any more. What they don’t know is that for almost no effort whatsoever they could be pocketing $10, $20, $50, even $100 or more for that “electronic junk.”

What types of devices are we talking about? Cell phones, of course. But also some laptop computers, digital cameras, MP3 players, PDAs, gaming consoles, GPS devices, LCD monitors, satellite radios, projectors, streaming media devices, home audio equipment, camcorders, external drives and Blu-ray players. Even content such as movies on DVD and video games may have residual value.

How can you be sure that you have something of value rather than junk? Better yet, how can you cash in with little effort? The way to do that is to sell your used electronic devices to a recycler that specializes in trading cash for gadgets. You simply visit the website and check the value of what you have in whatever condition its in. If you like what you see, you request a free prepaid mailer and send your gadget in for evaluation. Once approved, a check will be on its way to you quickly. Even if your offering has no remaining financial value, you can still send it in for proper recycling as the responsible thing to do.

So, treat yourself to a fancy coffee or a nice cold beer with part of your proceeds. Be sure to toast the device that served you well through those years and then gave you the opportunity to get a little cash at the end. From now on, you’ll be collecting on all your e-waste.

Samsung Reclaim is Green and Free

Who says that going green will cost you a bundle? Not with this eco-friendly cell phone. It's the Samsung Reclaim M560 for Sprint. This is hot technology in a cool green wrapper.

The Samsung Reclaim is a capable messaging phone, configured as a slider with a full QWERTY keyboard. The color display measures 2.6 inches or 320 x 240 pixels and is capable of displaying over 262,000 colors. That melds nicely with the 2.0 Megapixel digital camera that takes pictures good enough to print and share. The camera also works as a camcorder to record sharable video clips.

The Reclaim offers fast 3G connectivity, where available, on Sprint’s PCS voice and data network so you can enjoy Sprint TV, the Sprint Music Store, Sprint Video and other streaming media. There is integrated aGPS support for Sprint Navigation that gives you turn by turn directions.

Messaging? You bet. This phone is ready for instant messaging, text messaging, Email that supports Microsoft Exchange (Outlook), multimedia picture and video messaging and even Web browsing.

Music? Of course. The built-in MP3 player lets you carry your tunes anywhere. Get more storage with an optional microSD memory card up to 32 GB. You can even wirelessly stream music to stereo Bluetooth enabled headsets.

So far this sounds like any of the latest high technology cell phones. So what’s the green angle?

The Samsung Reclaim is what its name implies. This phone was designed with recyclable bio-plastic materials created from plants. Both the phone and its charger meet Greenpeace International standards. There’s also a Sprint One Click Green Tile that provides you with daily green tips, strategies for sustainable living, a green glossary and more.

Just to go over the top, Sprint will donate $2 to the Nature Conservancy’s Adopt-an-Acre program that protects important and imperiled natural places around the world. so far Adopt-an-Acre has raised $22 million to protect 600,000 acres in South America, Asia, Central America, the Caribbean and Africa.

Oh, and did you happen to notice... It’s GREEN! (It’s also available in Ocean Blue)

What are the hottest cell phone deals available right now, including free cell phones? Use the Cell Phone Plan Finder to check out the top phones and associated wireless service plans.

Cash For Clunker Cell Phones

The government’s Cash for Clunkers program may be ending for automobiles. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t a great idea. Did you know that there is a way you can get cash for your old clunker cell phone? In fact, there’s cash available for all sorts of unwanted electronic devices. You should really be getting your share.

Scratching your head because you haven’t heard about this on TV? That’s because it isn’t part of the hot news cycle right now. But that doesn’t mean you can’t get paid for old cell phones, laptop computers, PDAs, GPS systems, camcorders, gaming consoles, video games, satellite radios, external disk drives, LCD monitors, calculators, movies, camera lenses, desktop computers, streaming media, Blu-Ray players, home audio, projectors, digital cameras and MP3 players.

Whew! You didn’t realize that you had so many clunkers sitting around your house, did you? They may well be worth cash. The only way to find out for sure is to check the value of your electronic gadgets. You can do that right now.

To be sure, this is not a government program like the “Cash For Clunkers” stimulus. Some might think it should be, but there’s no need. The commercial marketplace has already risen to the occasion. In fact, this opportunity has been available for some time. It just isn’t as well known as it deserves to be.

How does it work? You may suspect that the cell phone that just came off of a two year service contract might be worth something. But it’s not your priority. What you want to do is start using the new cell phone that you got for free or at a deep discount from your new provider. So, the old cell goes into a desk drawer where it will be safe until you figure out what to do with it. Time passes and five or ten years later it’s still there. Only now it’s really not worth anything. Had you recycled it for cash right after you started using your new cell phone, you might have gotten $25, $50, $100 or more. That’s even if you got the phone for free in the first place.

The process is simple. You simply check the value of your electronic device, get an instant offer and request a prepaid shipping carton. Drop your electro-clunker in the mail and you’ll get a check in return. Does it get any easier than this?

If you indeed have a worthless clunker, you can also send it in for proper recycling. Electronic waste is becoming a scourge on society, as it piles up in landfills and leaches out toxic chemicals. Be part of the solution and send your unwanted electronics in for recycling instead of just tossing it.

Military Surplus Telephone Equipment

Here's an idea for dealing with the current business downturn. Let Uncle Sam help you out.

OK, perhaps you don't qualify for any TARP or other government stimulus funding. But there still a way your red, white and blue Uncle can save you money. All you need to do is bid on and win any of the mountains of surplus parts and equipment that the government doesn't want anymore. It's patriotic, it's "green" since you're recycling this unused equipment, and it's often a huge bargain.

When we think of government military surplus, things like jeeps, boots and tents come to mind. Oh, you can still get those if you want them. But the inventory of government surplus now in warehouses nationwide goes far beyond those usual military items. How far? How about high technology parts and equipment like computers and telephone gear?

Let's have a look at some of the items up for bid as of this writing. Would you be interested in a lot of 100 telephones that include some Nortel Network model M3902 phones? How about a pallet or so of telephone wire?

Do you find fiber optic equipment a tad expensive? Would you be interested in a Cisco LightStream 1010 ATM switch? There's one available.

There's test equipment, too. How about a Packeteer PacketWise Technology Packet Shaper 6500 protocol analyzer? Looks like this one cost $19,000 to acquire. I'll be you can get it for a lot less.

On a more mundane level, there are 9 pallets of printers and fax machines from manufactures like HP, Xerox and Lexmark awaiting your perusal. Why just go out and pick up a printer when you can have a truck load of them?

Well, maybe you'd just like a nice video projector. Or 4 pallets of Pentium IV desktop computers. Or some IBM ThinkPad docking stations.

Where did I find all this stuff? It's online at Government Liquidation. This is a site where you can register to bid on official U.S. government surplus equipment and supplies.

They also have a selection of items you can just buy outright. Most of these are clothing, but they did have a couple of types of computer speakers available the last time I looked.

If you've ever enjoyed browsing in local surplus stores, you'll find yourself spending a lot of "coffee break" time looking over the latest offerings online. Just tell the boss that you're researching ways to save the company a bundle and perhaps nobody will look closely enough to see that you are really checking out aircraft parts or inflatable boats. Who knows, you may just stumble across a great deal on a PBX system or some expensive fiber optic routers that you can get for a song.

Green Your Cell Phone For St. Patrick's Day

Ah, it's St. Patty's Day - a time for the wearin' of the green. But these days "green" means a lot more than shamrocks or tinted beer. Green means good for the environment as well. How about doing a little something green for good green Earth before you get too caught up in the day's festivities?

Now don't worry. This will only take a few minutes and you can be on your way. First, you'll need to find that old cell phone you tossed somewhere when you got your brand new one. Did you know that there are something like 100 million cell phones set aside each year? If you piled them all up, you'd find enough gold inside to make a respectable pot at the end of the rainbow. Before the leprechauns get wind of this, you better retrieve that unused phone and see how you can profit from it.

Got your phone? Good. Now see how much your cell phone is worth to a company that recycles them. New model phones can be worth hundreds of dollars. Take it in cash or donate your proceeds to charity. It's up to you. Older devices or broken phones can still be recycled to keep them from polluting the landfill. So send them in as your good deed to honor the day.

Now, didn't that make you feel good? You're just getting started. In addition to selling or recycling cell phones, you can also get cash for your old digital camera, MP3 player, PDA, laptop computer, gaming console, GPS device, camcorder, satellite radio, external hard drive, video game, LCD monitor or even Blu-Ray movies. You get the great feeling of cash in your pocket and the landfill gains a little breathing room. Eventually, everyone will be doing this and there may not be much need for landfills.

Sound interesting? Then take a few minutes to see how to get cash or recycle your old gadgets. There's a short video to watch that explains the process. You can learn what happens to your stuff once you're rid of it. There's an easy search bar so you can quickly find your particular device. Then check off a couple of boxes about condition of the unit and whether you have the AC adaptor and manuals or software. All of these have some effect on how much you'll get. You can even view a chart that shows the price history of your gadget, what it's worth now, and what it may be worth in the future.

Happy St. Patrick's Day and best of luck to you!

Cell Phones Piling Up?

Oh, you got that new Samsung touch screen phone you've been wanting for Christmas. Well, congratulations. You're going to get a lot of enjoyment in the next couple of years.

But, wait. What's that tossed under the tree with the crumpled wrapping paper? Is that your old phone? A relic of Christmas past? It still works, right? On Christmas Eve you were gleefully making calls to friends and family. Now, the day after all the hoopla, it's relegated to the same pile as the crushed bows and tissue paper.

No need to get all maudlin. After all, that beautiful tree is heading for the shredder in a couple of weeks. All that cardboard packaging will be bundled and set out by the curb for recycling. Recycling? Yes, that's it. Why not recycle your cell phone too?

How do you recycle a cell phone? Well, you don't set it out in the recycling bin at the curb. You send it off to a professional recycler who has the equipment and expertise to separate metals and plastic so that they can be reused by industry. A good recycler wastes nothing. All materials are recovered and sent to where they are wanted. Nothing enters the waste stream. Not even the echo of obnoxious ringtones past.

Here's a bonus for your civic spirit in wanting your old phone to at least meet a good end. Many recent cell phone models are still worth at least a little cash. These phones don't go to the crusher if they are still working up to spec. Instead, they are repurposed as emergency phones or sent overseas to new owners who are glad to get a phone they can afford. Even if you didn't pay anything for your phone in the first place, you can still get a little cash in your pocket by sending it in for reuse. And who doesn't need a little green in their pocket after the holidays?

Oh, I'll be this has you thinking. All those phones from all your family members have been piling up for years. They're in drawers or boxes, silent in their demise. If you aren't inspired to tie a ribbon around each one and use them as tree ornaments next year, why not round them all up and ship them off to the recycler? At the very least, you are doing a good deed by recycling instead of trashing. Best case, you'll get a check for who knows how much? Hey, there's a way to find out what those phones are worth. Get your collection of mobiles handy and look up cellphone values now.

Making Money With Other People's Cell Phones

Conventional wisdom holds that cell phones are a big expense. But what if you could have the cell phone and service you want but reduce that expense to zero? What if you could even go beyond that and create a positive cash flow? There's a way to do it, with other people's cell phones.

First thing to do is to get your cell phone without spending a cent. Stay out of those cell phone stores or electronics retailers. They won't give you thing unless you fork over some money. Instead, find the type of phone you want through an online cell phone retailer such as Wirefly. Check the current special offers and pick one of the free or free after rebate cell phones. There are lots to choose from. Don't worry about paying for shipping. That's free too.

What's not free is the cost of the monthly cellular service plan. The cost of these is the same regardless of whether you buy through a bricks and mortar store or online. But it's still a substantial monthly expense even with the smaller service plans.

Since you can't get the service for free, you need to generate an offsetting income. Let's say your plan costs $59.99 per month. If you can make $59.99 each month using other people's cell phones, then you've completely offset the cost of your own service. Essentially you get your phone plus your service free.

So how can you make money from other people's cell phones? It's not by commandeering the phone they are currently using. It's by having them give you the phone or phones they don't use anymore. What you'll do is to send those old phones to a recycler who will pay you for them. The recycling cost is zero. Once again, no out of pocket expense for you. The recycler will evaluate any recent model cell phones you send them and sent you a check for the value of the phone. It's usually not chump change. Some used phones can fetch as much as $100 or even more. Most will come in less than this, but it doesn't take that many phones each month to cover your wireless expenses.

Let's try this so you can see how it works. Now that you have your new free cell phone that you just bought online, you won't be needing your previous one. Make sure that service is discontinued before you try to recycle it. Next, check the value of your used phone online and request a free prepaid shipper. When it comes, just drop your old phone and accessories in the container, seal it up and drop the package off at your local post office. A check will be on its way to you promptly.

Now that you've sold one phone, why not lots of them? What you need to do is collect old unused cell phones for recycling. You can ask your colleagues around work, canvass the neighborhood or set up a collection box at a friendly store. You might find others at yard sales or resale shops. The idea is to get them for free or at a lower cost than you can sell them for. Of course, some of the phones you'll acquire will be too old to have any value. You still send them in for recycling at no cost. You'll be doing a valuable service for the environment.

This approach is actually a proven money maker that works as a fundraiser for school and scouting groups, among others. There is no shortage of used cell phones out there. Most people get a new one every two or three years. There are literally hundreds of millions of used but valuable cell phones wasting away in desk drawers. Some of these could be paying for your wireless phone service... and then some.

Drowning in a Sea of Cell Phones

The latest estimates I've seen put mobile subscribers at about 3 billion around the word, with 1 billion new cell phones sold each year. With a 2 to 3 year churn factor, that means that roughly a 1,000,000,000 mobile phones go obsolete each year. That's a billion with a "b". Where do they all go?

Right in a drawer at home, that's where. Actually a new survey says that only 44% actually wind up just sitting around the house like a boomerang college graduate. (Ouch, I was one of those). Another 25% get passed on to family and friends. A full 16% get sold. But only 3% are recycled.

Frankly, I can't see why you'd recycle a device that could be sold. But only 16% of those billion sales opportunities are turned into cash. That's hundreds and hundreds of millions of phones and dollars wasting away.

Well, perhaps there's not enough money to make it worth bundling up the old cell and driving it to the post office. I took a look through the listings of a company that re-purposes used cell phones for application in third world countries and as emergency phones in the U.S. They give you a mailer and send you a check for each cell they receive in good working order.

How much can you get? Most models seem to be in the $4 to $20 range, although there are a lot of newer models and smartphones that garner $25, $50 and more. Got an old iPhone you want to unload? You might get $150 for it.

What about phones that have collected a layer of dust because you sat them aside - a few years ago. Blow it off. Then send that junker in for recycling using a free mailing label. It will be out of your way and you'll have the satisfaction of knowing it isn't adding to the mounting tonnage of old electronics that will have to be dealt with someday.

Whatever you do, resist the urge to drop it in the weekly waste along with all the old pizza that's gone dried and wrinkly. Nature will reclaim pizza. The nasty arsenic, cadmium, plastics and other environmental degraders will live on to poison future generations. Some cities have electronic recycling days where you can drop off your circuit board laden trash for proper handling. If not, get that free mailing label and send it to a recycler specializing in cellular phones. They'll reclaim any valuable chemicals and metals and make sure whatever is left gets dealt with appropriately.

So now that you've unloaded your prized vintage mobile collection for cash and recycling, there's only one thing left to do. Go shopping for the latest and greatest mobile wireless devices.

Recycle Your Old iPhone For Cash

Early adopters and power users are just under a month away from getting the new iPhone 3G. The addition of faster cellular data networking, nearly as zippy as the WiFi hotspot experience, plus true GPS, corporate email & third-party application support makes it a definite improvement over the initial iPhone release. So much so that anyone who desperately needs the upgraded functionality or just wants to ride on the cutting edge will find it almost impossible not to trade up. But, oh, the cost. What can you do to take some of the sting out of buying the iPhone you wanted all along, when you've already spent a small fortune on the earlier model?

The latest information I've found about upgrading to the 3G iPhone is that AT&T plans to offer you a trade-in if you bought your iPhone on or after May 27 and it is in like new condition. According to one report, you'll get your money back less a 10% restocking fee when you buy and activate a new 3G iPhone. Sounds like a pretty good deal if you go in to an AT&T store between July 11 and August 1 and haven't lost your original packaging or receipt, or scratched the phone.

But what if you are a true early adopter who stood in line to get one of the first iPhones and would gladly do the same again. You can certainly do that and buy yourself a 3G model. But you won't get a trade-in deal. So, now what do you do? Put it in a glass display case to admire? Toss it in a drawer like the fate of most unneeded cell phones? Try to sell it in a newspaper ad or auction it on eBay?

Here's another option. Recycle your iPhone for cash.

Now, just a second. Who wants to send a beauty like the iPhone to the recycling crusher? Relax. That iPhone is still worth decent money to a company that recycles newer technology phones for use overseas. How much money? I just checked the prices paid and, as of this writing, your 16 GB iPhone will get you $280. The 4 GB and 8 GB models will net you $100. You get a free postage paid mailer, send in your unwanted phone and charger, and you get check back in the mail.

You almost always get more if you sell your old unwanted cell phones as soon as you take them out of service. A cell phone gets stale faster than a carton of milk. But that doesn't mean that those dusty old cells aren't worth recycling. In the first two years, you can probably get paid something for just about any model phone. The higher tech smartphones bring more than the garden variety entry-level phones as you would expect.

The real oldies that were once goodies may not have a cash value anymore, but you can still send them in at no cost. Why do that? Mobile electronic devices contain goodly amounts of toxic chemicals used in their manufacture. Lead, cadmium and arsenic are just a few. Tossing one or two in the landfill won't create a public health hazard, but pitching tens or hundreds of millions of them is a real threat. Those minor amounts of toxic waste combine to degrade the environment for future generations.

Instead of just pitching that old junker phone, send it to the recycler and know that it will be dismantled and the materials recovered for reuse or proper disposal. It gets the clutter out of your house or business and you're doing a good thing.

You're intrigued by the thought of getting money for that stack of retired cell phones that your family or employees have accumulated, aren't you? Well, find out now how much your old wireless device is worth and then get paid to recycle them.

Save the Cell Phone, Save the World

What toxic waste that you don't think about is piling up in our landfills? What source of gold is being tossed in the trash? What is it that people throw away that they could exchange for money?

Give up? It's cell phones. Cell phones are an environmental threat, a potential source of valuable minerals, and a marketable commodity all in one. Let's have a look at this underestimated resource and see what we've been missing.

A cell phone doesn't seem like much. It fits in the palm of your hand or tucks neatly into a pocket or purse. In its plastic or metal case a cell phone certainly seems chemically inert. Nothing leaks out and it doesn't stain your hand. So what's so toxic about a mobile telephone?

While in service or even left for decades in a desk drawer, a cell phone won't be damaging the environment. The problem is more subtle than that. The magic that gives a palm sized communicator the power to reach around the world lies in the materials and processing that create the electronic circuitry. These things aren't made out of renewable pine trees. They're made with lead, cadmium, arsenic and mercury. They also have their share of plastic and glass. Toxic metals can leach out of the circuit boards and batteries once the phones are attacked by water and various liquid chemicals that also find their way into landfills. On day one an obsolete phone is just buried there with the kitchen wastes, old shoes and industrial refuse. On day 1,000 or day 10,000 nasty processes are at work, dissolving captive chemicals and adding them to a slurry of toxins that will work their way into the water table, if they can.

One cell phone will destroy the Earth? Of course not. The one tossed here and the one tossed there represent a minuscule problem. It's when they are joined by hundreds and hundreds of millions of their ilk that the problem grows too big to ignore. The thing that's unique about cell phones is that they are on a 2 or 3 year cycle. People sign up for cellular service, activate their spanking new wireless device, and proceed to glue it to their ear for the duration of their contract. Some people just keep using their phone past the contract date. But most can't wait to get either a new model phone or a different carrier, who will also insist on a new phone. Since the phones are subsidized by the carriers in order to hold onto customers for a least a year or two, the cost to the consumer is low. So what do they care if they toss the old phone and get a new one free or at a small cost?

It is estimated that 11 million otherwise working cell phones are retired every month. Some are immediately dropped into the dumpster, but many more are simply slipped into a desk drawer or box in the basement. You might not want to keep using the old mobile, but it seems too good to just throw away. So an estimated 500 million of them are sitting in distributed landfills, otherwise known as people's homes, right now. Some day, maybe on moving day, one family member is going to decide that this unwanted device will never be used again and should go in the trash along with broken toys, worn out jeans, and everything that wouldn't sell at the last yard sale. Some day all 500 million and probably many times that number of cell phones will be slowly decaying in our public landfills and private dumping grounds.

What makes this situation even sadder is that those same consumers could have mailed their unwanted phone to a recycler at no cost. The recycler disassembles the phone, recovers plastics and metals for reuse in other applications, and sends nothing to the landfill. That's right, nothing. Who pays for all this work? The value of the materials in the phone are enough to cover the costs of recycling. What might seem like worthless materials are actually in demand. That includes minute amounts of gold used in chip and circuit board manufacturing. A little gold plating here and there and you're talking a mine's worth of the stuff spread over millions and millions of phones.

Many cell phones don't even have to meet the crusher so soon in their young lives. Recent model cellular phones are quite salable in bulk to third world countries clamoring for affordable technology. Many can also be repurposed as emergency phones for people living in shelters. Some can be refurbished as offered as pre-paid phones. All of these possibilities mean that the phone you were going to toss in the trash might be a $10, $20 or $100 bill in disguise. If you took a few minutes to order a pre-paid mailer and sent your usable but unwanted surplus cell phone in for evaluation, you could be getting a check in the mail instead of a guilty feeling from contributing to the waste problem.

Do you have one or more old cell phones hanging around your house awaiting their demise? See how much your cell phone model(s) are worth and then send them in for recycling or reuse. You'll feel good and might wind up with some unexpected cash in your pocket.

IT Departments are Wearin' the Green

It takes more these days that mere luck o' the Irish to keep information technology costs under control. Many companies are finding that going green can help them keep more green in their coffers. In this case green means environmentally friendly, things that help keep the Earth nice and green as well as help businesses save money.

The first to look for the proverbial pot of gold is in the power being pulled from the grid. What's insidious about power consumption is that it consists of dribs and drabs almost everywhere. All those desktop PCs quietly sitting on desks are fractional amperes each. Watts become Watt-Hours and then Kilowatt-Hours of consumption. If all of that electricity was going into productive activities the cost would easily be swamped out by the profits gained. But it's not. Much of the time computers are idle, people are away from their desks. But the electrons still flow from the wall and you pay for every one of them.

Many companies decided long ago that turning off idle computers and monitors overnight and letting them sleep during the day saved far more money than it cost in shortening the life of the equipment. Truth be told, it's hard to cycle a PC enough to destroy it before it becomes obsolete. Most go to the recycler still working just fine. You do call the recycler when you want to get rid of old PCs and other electronics, don't you? Those circuit boards and CRTs are chock full of toxic substances that can be reclaimed and reused before they escape to poison the water table.

Back to power consumption. In turning off equipment when it is not being used, preferably with a mechanical switch that interrupts the phantom or standby power that nearly everything electronic draws, has a double benefit. It reduces power drawn by the device and also the need to get rid of heat that it generates. Nothing is 100% efficient. When power is brought in, most is used to do important work but some just goes up in heat. Even LCD monitors that don't have fans still run slightly warm to the touch. Incandescent lights are the worst offenders of all. All those lumens of light you want are accompanied by BTUs of heat that you don't. Some office buildings never need to run their furnaces during the work day. They get their heating the expensive way, as a byproduct of electricity consumption.

Nowhere is the heat issue more obvious that in the server room. As more and more cores are packed into less and less space, the heat load of equipment racks goes up and up. More and more air conditioning is needed to deal with the heat rejection. It's a viscious circle. The problem has gotten so intense, so to speak, that equipment designers are starting to focus on higher efficiency power supplies and even things like DC power distribution.

Perhaps you don't need a server room at all. Heresy? Actually it may be more cost effective to locate your equipment at a colocation facility where the cost of power and environmental control can be amortized over many users. An additional benefit of colo facilities is that you may also find much better deals on bandwidth.

Still can't get power consumption low enough? Perhaps you should be generating some of your own. Those big flat empty office building and factory roofs are perfect for rows of solar cells. With a PV array powering a grid connected inverter, you'll be using less grid power during the heat (and light) of the day when it is most expensive. Google is just one of a growing number of companies that is supplementing it's electricity needs with solar power.

Is it time to upgrade your facilities with more efficient computing equipment? Let our network of value added resellers help you find the best deals on servers and network devices that can also help you save the green in more than one way.

Green Solution For Old Cell Phones

Are you a reluctant cell phone collector? Most people have a few models in the basement or desk drawer. They all have one thing in common. They don't work anymore.

The thing about cell phones is that they go obsolete long before they stop functioning. There's the occasional dropped or crushed mobile. But most of these phones would work just fine if you charged them up and got them a cellular service plan. Ah, there's the rub. The plans are what costs. The phones are cheap. Even new models are often offered free or at a highly subsidized low prices. Why would you keep paying monthly fees for the old clunker when you can have the latest model for the same monthly cost?

So there they sit. Piling up one, two, or three per household. Collectively there are hundreds of millions of old cell phones going unused. Eventually, people clean house. What happens then is that millions of phones go from the drawer to the curb, and then on to the city landfill.

Isn't that where junk is supposed to go? Cell phones aren't like most junk. Electronic trash is both wasteful and hazardous. What you are putting into the landfill for the next hundred or thousand years is a package of chemicals that can only be harmful to the environment in the long run. They contain chemicals such as lead, cadmium, arsenic and zinc. These materials are what makes the electronics work. There isn't a lot in each phone. But when you inject thousands or tens of thousands of phones into a landfill and they start to break down over time, you've got the potential for serious trouble some day.

So what do you do? Some communities have an electronics recycling day once or twice a year. They will take your cell phones and other unwanted electronic items and properly recycle them to recover useful chemicals. That includes the lead, cadmium, arsenic and zinc. But it also includes plastic, glass and gold.

Gold? Yes. gold plating is used on circuit boards and within semiconductors because gold is an excellent conductor of electricity and doesn't corrode the way copper and aluminum do. There's a little gold mine in each cell phone.

How would you like to mine some cellular gold of your own? No need to take a pick to your phone. All you have to do is send it in for recycling. This company sends you a prepaid mailer for your cell phone. You drop it in the mail and they take of of recycling or reuse so that nothing goes to waste. If your phone is a newer model and suitable for refurbishment and reuse in other countries or as an emergency phone, you'll even get paid.

How much can you make? That depends on how new and in-demand your old phone is. Even though you may have gotten the phone for free, it probably has value to someone else. Check to see what your old cell phone is worth.

So instead of letting old phones go to waste, why not get a check instead? Even if your old mobile is only suitable for recycling you'll at least have the satisfaction of knowing that you've protected the environment from hazardous waste and made the materials available for other uses.