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Read the rest of this articleSprint putting money where its mouth is with phone buyback improvements
Recently the CEO of Sprint, Dan Hesse, presented some of his company’s green priorities to a committee in Washington. While the news isn’t as exciting as the buzz flying around about the HTC SuperSonic potentially hitting Sprint’s WiMax network, it’s good to know that the company is taking sustainability seriously by empowering its customers to easily recycle their old phones.
Sprint already had a phone buyback program in place but has expanded the number of devices it will accept. As an example I have an HTC Hero and I’m able to score a $121.87 account credit. Granted, with an HTC Hero that’s in good working condition eBay would probably provide a greater return in cash but that takes the gumption to set up a listing and ship it.
Americans are only recycling about 10% of the 140 million phones they trash each year. That means the vast majority are sitting in landfills taking years to decompose, and many of them probably have batteries still intact which creates toxic seepage and some of that inexorably makes it through landfill safeguards into the ground soil.
So how far has Sprint expanded it’s phone buyback program?
Sprint's new, expanded Buyback program now accepts all eligible wireless devices, regardless of manufacturer or carrier. Through this new Buyback program, current or new Sprint customers can go to one of the more than 1,000 participating Sprint-owned retail stores nationwide or go online to www.sprint.com/recycle to convert any eligible old Sprint, Verizon Wireless, AT&T or T-Mobile network phone into an instant account credit.
That’s a great expansion, though an option for phones that aren’t a part of that “eligible” keyword would be ideal, even if it meant just recycling the phone without an account credit.
Sprint is also introducing a new set of standards for any manufacturer that wants to distribute a phone on its network. For manufacturers that means sustainable materials, streamlined packaging, an elimination of hazardous materials, interoperable accessories, and easy to recycle. Maybe that means the rumored HTC SuperSonic will be following some of those guidelines.
It’s good to see this focus on green from Sprint and hopefully it continues on that path.
Comments
is HTC Diamond 2 in the list of expanded the number of devices?
Hi changsheng, here are the list of accepted devices. I see a couple of references to HTC Diamond there but not sure which of them (if any) refers to the Diamond 2.
Matt - Great post. Thank you for spreading the word. Cell phone recycling rates in the U.S. really do need a boost. At Sprint, we believe that providing incentives for recycling is one of the keys to increasing that rate. That goes for the more than 900 phones that are "eligible" for the Sprint Buyback program, and for the rest. Any phones that remain can be recycled with Sprint Project Connect -- a free recycling service available to anyone that accepts all used wireless phones, batteries, accessories and data cards, regardless of carrier or condition. All net proceeds generated from the sale of equipment collected through Sprint Project Connect go to fund and promote free Internet safety resources for kids, parents, and educators. To recycle your old wireless device with Sprint Project Connect, click here for a free postage-paid envelope.
Darren Beck
Sprint Corporate Responsibility
Twitter @DarrenBeck
Looking at that pic feels as if mobile phones are free of cost, i love playing mobile games and i wish if i could have that bundle of mobile phones.
Sprint may have had a negative customer service reputation but the buy back policy from Sprint I think deserves appreciation. Just imagine, in spite of selling off huge scraps to developing countries at a cheaper rate we still have so much to discard! And dumping these in landfills can later on build up toxic gases or mineral. Instead of mounting the garbages, landfills are a better option since it prevents certain unhealthy situations which can lead to diseases. It's good to know that Garbage mountain is extracting energy from it's garbages but still, to me landfills are safer but we should be responsible enough to be well-informed about what things belongs to be dumped in landfills and which doesn't otherwise the toxic built-up from the metals and wastes IF it doesn't lead to an explosion will pose a great danger. More companies should try to come up with buy back schemes and do something about it for a safer environment.
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Instead of mounting the garbages, landfills are a better option since it prevents certain unhealthy situations which can lead to diseases. Byty na predaj
That's a lot of stockpile of obselete and destroyed phones. That's really get wasted.
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Its also one problem of our every country. What a waste of money value of such volume of dumped phones. large format digital printing | digital printing
Oh, that's a lot of waste. You know its one problem inthe country, junks!
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That's one problem in the society, junks of all those stuff. government must take charge of this issue. boyfriend gift
It's a good initiative but at the same time I feel like they are trying to force people to constantly change their phones in a while. Why not make an environmental friendly, lasting phone ? it wouldn't be that cost effective for them I guess.
Andrew - contracts for difference consultant.