A new start-up company based in San Diego has launched an innovative new technology which allows e-waste to be dropped off at new recycling kiosks. The company, appropriately named ecoATM, has designed Coinstar-esque recycling machines which calculate the value of an old mobile device and then pays the recycler on site via cash or coupons.
To use the new kiosk, an individual simply plugs in the phone using a provided connection device and then the ecoATM scans the device and takes a picture of the quality of phone and then erases all the data entered on the phone. Upon completion of the scan, consumers will receive a monetary value for their device and then cash or a coupon for redemption.
Trials were run at various locations, and results indicated that on average customers received roughly $11 per mobile. However, the company has not disclosed their service fee for using the ecoATM. Although the company was launched last year, the start-up, just last week, secured a major round of funding and will be gearing up to expand into more areas.
The new company will help eliminate further issues as e-waste begins to build up worldwide. The UN recently launched a report indicating that nations would need to begin dealing with an ever-growing amount of e-waste being left at landfills instead of being recycled.
Currently the ecoATMs are only available in the US. It has been reported that U.S. consumers generated up to two million tonnes of e-waste in 2005, but only 350,000 tonnes of that were recycled. These numbers have caused more and more start-up companies to break out into the e-waste recycling market. One that is proving to look quite lucrative.
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