Recycle Old Cell Phones & Empty Inkjet and Laser Toner Cartridges

You can recycle old cell phones and empty inkjet and laser toner cartridges.  It's as easy as 1,2,3: 

1. Obtain a postage prepaid bag.
2. Insert your empty cartridge(s) or cell phone(s) into the bag.  No cell phone chargers accepted.
3. Drop the bag into any U.S. Postal Service mailbox or give it to your local postal carrier.

Bags are available by calling 727-8153 or can be picked up in the Lobby of the Bryce A. Stuart Municipal Building, 100 E. First Street.  For laser toner cartridges, you will need to purchase/secure a box and affix the bag on top of the box.

This service is possible through a partnership with Waste Management, the city's recycling contractor.   The city receives revenue in return to supplement the recycling program.  Waste Management sorts, grades, and disassembles the cartridges for their metal and plastic content.  Cell phones are repaired and recycled to organizations or broken down for parts and redistributed.

Facts

In addition to reducing the waste stream, recycling cell phones and inkjet cartridges saves petroleum and the energy required to produce them.

Each year, more than 300 million plastic printer cartridges end up dumped in landfills in the United States and around the world. (Recharger Magazine)

For every cartridge that is remanufactured, over a pound of plastics is withheld from the waste stream. (U.S. Dept. of Energy Office of Industrial Technologies)

The plastic in each laser toner cartridge takes three and a half quarts of oil to produce, and each new inkjet cartridge requires two and a half ounces of oil. (Recharger Magazine)

Thank you for recycling!