Washington-based Coinstar, which runs automated coin-counting kiosks and movie rental stands, announced it will purchase the rights to ecoATM, a San Diego-invented automated mobile phone recycling kiosk.
EcoATM, which was first introduced in 2008, is currently being piloted in seven different locations around the US. The kiosks automatically calculate the price of a mobile device once placed into and dole out cash to each customer based on the calculations. Payments are available in the form of gift cards, vouchers or cash.
Each mobile device once collected is stored until each kiosk can be emptied. Once emptied, the used mobiles are taken to be re-sold to the secondary market or recycled.
CEO of Coinstar, Gregg Kaplan said that the investment would become a viable business that will provide a convenient way for consumers to responsibly recycle or resell their mobile phone. He commented that currently there are more than 7 million mobile handsets that are made redundant each year in the US.
Coinstar’s major services at present include their redbox self-service video-rental kiosks and their patented self-service coin-counting machines. Currently, the firm operates 26,900 DVD kiosks and a further 19,000 coin-counting kiosks. Additionally, the company offers financial services through items like pre-paid debit cards and international money transfers.
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