To download the full report, please click here. This is a pdf file.

WorldWatch report:
July 31st, 2006 - London, England -
WorldWatch, a non-profit organization based out of the UK writes a very interesting report about the burgeoning problem of e-waste globally. CollectiveGood (Parent company of RipMobile) is cited twice for our innovative cell phone recycling and collection programs (www.collectivegood.com and www.ripmobile.com), as well as for our commitment to the highest levels of environmental stewardship through the BAN Responsible e-Stewardship Pledge. It is worth noting that no other US based mobile phone recyclers are even mentioned, once again demonstrating our leadership in this growing field and the need for greater transparency and higher standards amongst other recyclers. As a correction to note, CollectiveGood sends about 50% (not 80% as cited in the report) of the phones processed through materials reclamation after parts cannibalization – that process reclaims 17 metals as well as thermal recycling of the plastics...”

To download the full report, please click here. This is a pdf file.

EPA Green Power Partner:
CollectiveGood goes “carbon neutral” through wind power generated Green Tags.
January 3, 2006

Of Imitators and Innovators
So what’s in a name?
May 15th, 2006

Small Business Development Council of Arlington:
RIPmobile and CollectiveGood honored with Innovative Social Entrepreneur Award by Small Business Development Council of Arlington, VA.
October, 28, 2005

The New York Times:
Out With the Old Phone, in With the Cash
July 7, 2005

Earthwork and CollectiveGood:
EarthWorks and CollectiveGood Announce The "Recycle My Cell Phone Campaign"
Atlanta, April 20, 2005

Basel Action Network:
CollectiveGood signs on as a Responsible E-Steward with Basel Action Network
Atlanta, March 28th, 2005

BBC News
Gadget growth fuels eco concerns
January 20, 2005

FULL ARTICLES BELOW

Take My Powerbook, Please.
Computers, TVs, music players, and cell phones - we love them so much when they're new. There's nothing quite like that geeky thrill when you power up for the first time. After a few years, though, when there's crap stuck between the keys, a scratch on the screen, and yesterday's chip inside, it's time to sent that old Mac to the trash.

More than 2 million tons of expired electronics are discarded in landfills each year, making ewaste the fastest-growing fraction of the municipal garbage system. These castoffs account for nearly 40 percent of the toxic heavy metals - like lead, cadmium, and mercury - found in dumps.

Some states already mandate ewaste recycling, but only recently have big electronics makes made it easy for customers to recycle their gear. In September, Dell began recycling programs for all if its products (www.dell.com/recycle). HP recycles computers, provided that you pay the shipping (www.hp.com/recycle). Apple users can now turn in their done-for machine (www.apple.com/environment/recycling). RIPMobile (www.ripmobile.com) will resell your cell, - and send you a gift certificate or donate the proceeds to Hurricane Katrina relief.

For a list of electronics recyclers in your area, click on the map at the Computer Back Campaign’s Web site (www.computertakeback.com).

By Charles Bethea. Test Wired. Posted November 2006.

Note from RIPMobile: "It's pretty cool to read a mention about RIPMobile's phone recycling program in one of our favorite magazines... Only RIPmobile makes cleaning up the environment as easy, and rewarding as our unique service! As the article mentions, there are more than 2 million tons of expired electronics discarded in landfills every year - the number of cell phones that will be "retired" and are likely destined for landfill is a whopping 130+ million (and the cumulative size of all of the cell phones we have retired in the US is estimated at 750 million+). This makes e-waste the fastest growing fraction of the municipal garbage system. These castoffs account for nearly 40% of the Toxic Heavy Metals - like lead, cadmium and mercury - found in dumps. (learn more about Toxic Heavy Metals)

Interestingly, the above article about A Handset’s Heavy Metal doesn't mention the high environmental costs of mining (see Earthworks Report Card on the wireless industry ), nor does it mention Coltan, a metal that is used in cell phones with a truly horrible link to fueling civil war, rape and genocide in African nations (see article below for details)."

War, Murder, Rape... All for Your Cell Phone
Everyone's heard about the human rights abuses in African gold and diamond mines. But when it comes to their ultra-cool, razor-thin cell phones, American consumers won't get the message.
By Stan Cox, AlterNet. Posted September 14, 2006.

"As you crawl through the tiny hole, using your arms and fingers to scratch, there's not enough space to dig properly and you get badly grazed all over. And then, when you do finally come back out with the cassiterite, the soldiers are waiting to grab it at gunpoint. Which means you have nothing to buy food with. So we're always hungry."

That's how Muhanga Kawaya, a miner in the remote northeastern province of North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), described his job to reporter Jonathan Miller of Britain's Channel 4 last year. Cassiterite, or tin oxide, is the most important source of the metallic element tin, and the DRC is home to fully one-third of the world's reserves. Some cassiterite miners work on sites operated directly by the country's military or other armed groups. Working in the same area are "artisanal" miners who are theoretically independent, like prospectors in America's Old West. But the cassiterite they extract is heavily taxed by the soldiers -- when it's not just stolen outright.

With a land area as vast as that of Texas, California, Montana, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and Colorado combined, the DRC has only 300 miles of paved roads. To reach one of the many cassiterite mines in the virtually roadless northeast, 1,000 miles from the national capital Kinshasa, Miller's team followed a 40-mile footpath that, he reported, was as "busy as a motorway. Four thousand porters ply this route carrying sacks of rock heavier than they are. Each of their 50 kilogram packs of cassiterite is worth $400 on the world market. Government soldiers often force porters at gunpoint to carry the rocks free of charge; if they're lucky, though, they can make up to $5 a day." (Watch Channel 4's gripping, award-winning report here.)

So, why should we care? Because without cassiterite rock and the other ores mined in the Congo we would be unable to manufacture the linchpins of our global "weightless economy" -- computers and telephones.

Greener phones, meaner mines

A horrific war among the DRC military and various rebel armies officially ended in 2003 after taking 3 million to 4 million lives. But fighting continued long after that in the northeast, fueled by mining profits. First-ever democratic national elections in July have set up an October runoff election in the DRC, along with great hope for the future. Meanwhile, disarmament and integration of the armies is being carried out. But soldiers frequently receive little or no pay, and that provides a strong incentive for them to squeeze what they can from the cassiterite business.

The majority of the ore moves through illicit channels across the northeastern border to Rwanda, enriching troops and middlemen along the way. The U.K.-based organization Global Witness has comprehensively documented the impact of resource extraction in the DRC in a 2005 report that described "killing, rape, torture, arbitrary arrests, intimidation, mutilation, and the destruction or pillage of private property" that soldiers used "to gain control either over resource-rich areas or over the ability to tax resources."

Since the July elections, says Carina Tertsakian of Global Witness, "labor conditions remain pretty much the same, especially in the informal sector." She says the DRC government now has slightly more control over the mines, "but that's not necessarily for the better." Despite pressure from the United Nations and European Union to pay members of its newly integrated armed forces more consistently, miners are being treated just as they were during the war.

In a cruel irony, Western efforts to make information-age products more environmentally friendly actually boosted incentives for violence and exploitation. In late 2002, the EU joined Japan in banning lead from the solder used in cell phones and other electronic goods. Traditional solder is an amalgam of 63 percent tin and 37 percent lead, but lead-free solder is composed almost 95 percent of tin. Partly in response to that new demand, the world price of tin shot up by almost 150 percent between August 2002 and May 2004, and has remained high since. As prices rose, fighting in the eastern DRC intensified.

Killer coltan

This wasn't the first time that fighters in DRC and Rwanda have reaped a mineral bonanza. Back in 2000, a spike in the price of coltan, an ore that is the source of the precious metal tantalum, spurred feverish mining, profiteering and suffering in the same area of northeast DRC where cassiterite is mined. The DRC controls an estimated 64 to 80 percent of world coltan reserves, and the windfall from mining those deposits funded a Rwanda-backed rebel army of as many as 40,000 soldiers during 2000-2002. The mining was also blamed for destroying habitat of the mountain gorilla; the gorilla population plunged by half in a national park where coltan was being mined.

Global demand for coltan increased with the growing use of tantalum in cell phones and other electronic devices. Whereas cassiterite is needed to make the products more eco-friendly, coltan is needed to make them more compact. Capacitors made with tantalum have an unmatched ability to hold high voltages at very high temperatures. Because of that, tantalum capacitors have been essential to the miniaturization of cell phones and other handheld wireless devices. At the time of the price spike, the No. 1 destination for the DRC's coltan exports was the United States. The prices of tantalum and its coltan ore have fallen from their 2000-2002 peak, but continued heavy demand from the electronics industry will keep their value high.

Getting a signal -- halfway to the moon

There's not much tin, and only a tiny amount of tantalum, in an individual cell phone; however, explosive growth in the wireless market has piled those metals up, milligram by milligram, into countless tons. In 2005, worldwide sales of mobile phones surpassed 200 million per quarter -- that means that factories are churning out 25 phones every second, around the clock. Customers typically discard and replace their phones every 18 months in the United States, and that cycle is said to be down to 12 months in Western Europe.

In the spring of 2001, some analysts were expressing doubts over a seemingly outlandish prediction that 1.7 billion people -- one out of every four on the planet -- would be wireless subscribers by 2006. As it turned out, the planet now has more than 2 billion subscribers, and the industry would like to sell a new phone to as many as of them as possible by the end of 2007.

Two billion of those little phones laid end-to-end would reach almost halfway to the moon. And that doesn't count the vast numbers already buried in landfills or abandoned in desk drawers.

As portable electronics acquire even more innovative features and (somehow) grow even smaller, their manufacture is sure to require even more exotic materials. And, more likely than not, those materials will come from some exotic location. Even before the handheld revolution, the United States was importing more than 70 percent of its tin, nickel, platinum and chromium, and more than 90 percent of its tantalum, aluminum ore, niobium and manganese. The EU and Japan are even more dependent on imports of those minerals, as well as silver, zinc, tungsten, gold, vanadium and copper.

Battery and assault

Cell phones, laptop computers and other portable electronics rely for their power on lithium ion batteries, which aren't just made of lithium. They contain copper and cobalt (often found together in a single ore called heterogenite) as well as nickel and iron, and generally have to be replaced every one to three years. (Up to 6 million will need to be replaced all at once with the recent recall of Dell and Apple laptop batteries). The DRC has 10 percent of the world's copper reserves and 30 to 40 percent of its cobalt, and with the prospect of a stable central government, the country's importance as a source of those materials for batteries and other uses is expected to grow.

The DRC's mines are in its southernmost province, Katanga, which went largely unscathed by the war that raged far to the north. Nevertheless, artisanal miners work under conditions that are only marginally better than those in the tin and coltan mines. They crawl through incredibly hot, cramped tunnels lit only by small flashlights or candles, using only shovels or their bare hands as tools. The BBC reported last year that the Ruashi mine employs 4,000 miners, some as young as 8 years old, who "dig and sieve from dawn to dusk."

Although transnational corporations are now rushing in to exploit the heterogenite deposits on an industrial scale, much of the ore is still being extracted by artisanal miners like those in Ruashi. Global Witness explained the danger in a July 2006 report:

Deaths usually occur when miners are digging holes -- sometimes 20 meters or deeper -- then digging horizontal corridors, known as kalolo or galleries, as they follow the cobalt or copper veins. The kalolo sometimes extend over stretches of more than 50 meters ... Those who remain at the top are usually the first to spot signs of crumbling earth and try to warn their colleagues of the danger -- often too late. As the mineshaft starts collapsing, they may attempt to rescue their colleagues trapped underneath. In some cases they succeed. In other cases, they have themselves been trapped by falling rocks, injured, and even killed in the process of trying to save their teammates.

There is an expectation in Katanga that after the October elections, foreign corporations will move in, putting an end to the more dangerous freelance mining. But the highly mechanized companies will be able to employ only a small fraction of the current artisanal miners, and, says Carina Tertsakian, there are already reports of clashes between corporate security guards and miners reluctant to surrender the sites they've been working.

Scary old phones

The level of exploitation continues to be affected much more by prices on the London Metal Exchange than by international efforts to protect workers or curb illicit trafficking of resources. Tertsakian says, "Organizations and journalists have created greater awareness, but I have to say we haven't seen that awareness translated into action." Even when Western manufacturers attempt to avoid buying Congolese minerals mined under deadly and exploitative conditions, they find it's not easy.

A great amount of the tin, coltan, copper and cobalt move out of the DRC via such roundabout and shadowy routes that it becomes almost impossible for a company at the end of the line to determine their origin. And human-rights-conscious consumers are even deeper in the dark. You can't boycott the assortment of metals in an electronic device the same way you can boycott a "conflict diamond" with a clearer history.

Demand for the minerals could be slashed if customers didn't replace their cell phones as often, and if when they did buy a new one, they no longer treated the old one as disposable. A myriad of for-profit and charitable organizations are now collecting unwanted cell phones for resale, donation or recycling. (Read the list of those who have taken a pledge of responsibility).

Yet the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) says that currently fewer than 1 percent of retired phones in this country are restored or recycled. With word spreading, that market may increase, and begin to affect the new phone market. As the title of an article in the current issue of Inc. magazine shows, manufacturers are already concerned: "Three Scary Words: 'Buy It Used'."

A 2004 California law requires sellers of cell phones to accept return of the instruments by their customers for reuse or recycling. It was passed in the face of the industry's intense nationwide efforts to defeat such mandatory take-back bills. Nationally, all four top wireless companies -- Cingular, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon -- have voluntary take-back programs; however, a "report card" issued in April by the Washington, D.C.-based environmental group Earthworks gave those programs an F.

Of the stores Earthworks visited, only 30 percent displayed information on drop-off and recycling, and only 50 percent of company representatives provided accurate information on the program. And companies could not verify that they were handling the returned phones according to best environmental and social practices, or that they weren't simply dumping many of them overseas.

Kimberlee Dinn of Earthworks says her group has seen some modest improvements in response to the report card. "There's a little more visibility of programs in the stores, more prominent mention on some of their websites. But not a single company has been able to provide us with statistics showing increased recycling of their phones."

To handle returned phones, all of the big four companies contract with ReCellular, Inc. of Dexter, Mich., which, according to Earthworks, is the only company to have been removed from the Electronics Recycler's Pledge of True Stewardship for noncompliance with its standards.

Dinn says California's mandatory recycling law has been a huge boon to ReCellular, which has grabbed 75 percent of the national market. CNN puts its market share somewhat lower, at 53 percent, and praises ReCellular for selling 55 to 60 percent of its still-functioning phones abroad, largely in poor countries where people can't afford new ones. That keeps waste out of U.S. landfills but also raises a question: If most used phones are being bought by people who would not have bought one otherwise, is reuse really cutting very deeply into demand for minerals, including those mined under conditions of near-slavery?

Tiny treasure trove

Once electronic goods go kaput (as they all eventually do), the metals they contain represent a potential "treasure trove," in the words of USGS. By their calculations, the 500 million phones now lying unused in American homes and businesses contain more than 17 million pounds of copper, 6 million ounces of silver, 600,000 ounces of gold, and 250,000 ounces of palladium.

The tin in the 110 pounds of cassiterite a hauler in Congo carries on his shoulders for 40 miles would make enough tiny drops of tin solder to manufacture tens of thousands of cell phones. The incentive to recycle that tin is boosted, of course, by the presence of precious metals lying next to it in the phone. But each device contains only a few cents' worth of any one metal, even the precious ones. And unlike aluminum cans, which are composed of a single, nearly pure metal, electronic goods don't surrender their diminutive, complex array of metals to the recycler without a struggle.

Among the charges that Earthworks levels at ReCellular has been that it ships nonusable phones to countries where hand labor for disassembly is cheap but environmental and workers' rights abuses are commonplace. Dinn says, "You hear horrible stories from Malaysia, Sudan and other countries -- no protective gear for workers handling the toxic materials in the phones, work being done by prisoners."

But Seth Heine, CEO of the phone recycling firm CollectiveGood in Tucker, Ga., says the metals in nonrepairable cell phones are well worth the costs of collection, shipping and processing, and that it can be done responsibly. Because CollectiveGood is "fixated on following absolutely the most environmentally sound procedures," Heine sends cell phones to an Antwerp, Belgium, company whose standards are "higher than anything in the U.S."

There, 17 different metals, including tin, copper, and cobalt, can be reclaimed. But says Heine, "No company's process at this point can reclaim tantalum. That's frustrating, considering its tragic history in the Congo."

On their backs

Reducing demand for coltan, cassiterite, heterogenite and other ores -- by reusing, recycling, and simply not buying so damn many electronic goods so often -- cannot by itself ensure safe jobs and living wages for people in the Congo or anywhere else. But a seemingly insatiable hunger for mineral resources can and does distort economies in some of the planet's most desperate locales. Relieving some of that distortion through reduced consumption at least gives nations and people a chance to build better lives independent of the ups and downs of world commodity exchanges.

Back in North Kivu last year, Channel 4's Jonathan Miller asked some of the people trudging along that muddy trail if they knew what the burdens they carried would be used for. He reported, "Not one of them knew their cassiterite was destined for the electronics industry in the rich world. One man claimed he knew: 'It goes to America,' he said, 'to rebuild the Twin Towers and the Pentagon.'" I don't know whether Miller told that man the real story -- that within only a year or two, much of the tin in the rocks on his shoulders, having served its purpose in the information economy, would end up lying unused in a dresser drawer or trash heap.

Stan Cox is a plant breeder and writer in Salina, Kan.

3 ways to toss an old cell phone
Every day, tens of thousands of toxic cell phones hit the landfill. But there are great alternatives -- including a couple that can save you money.
MSN Money, by Liz Pulliam Weston
September, 2006

Like many of us, Bill Messett had a cell-phone graveyard.

His old phones weren't actually dead, but he certainly wasn't using them. Each was tossed into a drawer, along with all its chargers and accessories, when he upgraded to the next model every year or two.

Messett, 38, had the vague idea that he would use the most recent discarded model as a backup in case he lost his current phone. The rest, he sensed, had some value, which made him reluctant to part with them.

"I'm kind of packratty in that sense," said Messett, a Miami insurance broker. "I don't like to throw anything away."

Messett found his solution this summer while surfing the Internet. He exchanged two of his newer model phones at RipMobile.com for about $50 in Circuit City gift certificates and donated the rest to RipMobile's affiliated site, CollectiveGood, in return for a small tax deduction.

What to do with old phones is no small issue. The United States alone has more than 200 million cell phone subscribers, and about 5 million of those change carriers each month, which usually means getting a new phone. Even when they don't change carriers, people often change phones to take advantage of improved technology, innovative features and changing fashions.

"The average user gets a new phone about every 18 months," said James Mosieur, CEO of CellForCash.com, "and they end up retiring the old one."

That's left the United States with hundreds of millions of used cell phones, only a fraction of which have been resold, recycled or reused. Californians, for example, throw away 44,000 cell phones every day.

"Eighty percent have not been repurposed," said Seth Heine, founder and CEO of CollectiveGood/RipMobile, who estimates there are 750 million used cell phones floating around the United States. "They literally go into people's drawers."

Such cell cemeteries are a problem for a number of reasons:

Environmental concerns. Eventually, owners may get fed up with the clutter and toss their wireless handsets into the nearest trash can -- the worst possible outcome.

Cell phones and chargers contain a variety of toxic materials that can poison the soil, water and air. Cell-phone manufacturers are trying to make new handsets more environmentally friendly, said Joe Farren, public affairs director for CTIA -- The Wireless Association, by phasing out the use of lead and cadmium. Still, you should assume that anything with a circuit board, like a phone or a computer, is a caldron of caustic stuff and try to keep it out of the landfill.

Security concerns. Today's phones can store all kinds of private data, from passwords to e-mails to that racy photo you snapped of your girlfriend. Anyone who gets his or hands on your old phone could potentially access this stuff.

Security is an issue for those who would sell or donate phones, too. Trust Digital, which provides mobile security software, recently said it gleaned data from nine of 10 smart phones and personal digital assistants the company purchased on eBay as an experiment. Among the 27,000 pages of data the company retrieved were e-mails between a married man and his girlfriend, details about pending corporate deals and bank account numbers and passwords, according to The Associated Press.

The kind of simple reset users often perform to erase data doesn't scrub the information from many devices' flash memory, the company said. The information can be reclaimed using software available on the Internet. A user needs to perform "an advanced hard reset," which is typically outlined in the phone's user manual, to permanently clear the memory.

Eroding value. The older the phone, the less it's typically worth. That means fewer shekels in your pocket if you eventually resell and less value to a charity if you decide to donate. If you want the biggest bang for your buck, you should part with an old phone as soon as you get the new one.

CellforCash.com pays anywhere from $5 to $160 for select models, Mosieur said, with the average seller receiving a check for $27. RipMobile.com typically offers more for similar models, with sellers receiving points good toward gift certificates at CircuitCity.com, Starbucks, MSN Music and Karmaloop clothing, among other vendors. Recently CellforCash.com offered $67 for a Treo 650, for example, while RipMobile.com offered $115. On eBay -- where about 130,000 used phones change hands each month -- a similar model recently went for just under $200.

Another option: Check with your carrier. Wireless providers may offer a discount on a new phone -- typically $25 or so -- when you trade in an older model.

Even if a handset has little cash value, it still can benefit charities. Several posters on the Your Money message board said they donated old phones to battered women's shelters or other nonprofits.

"I donate mine to a domestic violence program," wrote poster jlf. "The phones can be used for not only 911, but the women are also given minutes on the phones so that they can be used as a way to contact or be contacted by assistance agencies."

All four major wireless carriers have recycling programs, as do most sites that buy phones, and you can find other drop-off locations through WirelessRecycling.com. These options typically don't provide receipts for tax deductions, however. If that's important, look for sites like CollectiveGood, which recycles phones for charities and which offers tax documentation.

Before you pass on any cell phone, do the following:

• Discontinue your service. If you stayed with the same company or ported your phone number to a new provider, service to the old phone has almost certainly been disconnected. Otherwise, you should call your old provider and make sure service is turned off.
   
• Do a hard reset on your phone. This may be more complicated than the simple reset often used to erase data when you're having technical problems with the phone. For example, many Treo phones can be reset by pressing a small button on the back, but a hard reset requires pushing four buttons at once. Check your phone's user manual for the procedure. WirelessRecycling.com also offers instructions on its site for common models.
   
• Talk to your company: Some phones, such as the newest ones running Microsoft's mobile software, can be remotely wiped if the phone is lost or stolen. Other third-party software can delete a phone's information if a specially coded e-mail is delivered to it. Talk to your company about what technology it employs to protect its information and what is available.

EPA Green Power Partner:
CollectiveGood goes “carbon neutral” through wind power generated Green Tags:
January 3, 2006

CollectiveGood has once again taken the lead in our industry by becoming the first company to completely off-set our impact on the environment through our use of electricity and cars by buying Green Tags. These are CO2 credits generated through our purchase of enough wind power to offset our electrical use and automotive exhausts, making us “100% carbon neutral” - no one else in the wireless industry does this! It not only makes us cool, but also propels us to the leadership level of the EPA’s Green Power Leadership Club. In addition to supporting use of “renewable energy”, we also recycle the boxes, paper, and packaging that customers send in to us. Our staff is constantly looking for new ways to improve our recycling efforts to create less waste. Just another example of how we are dedicated to preserving the environment not just in theory, but also in actual daily practice.
 

Of Imitators and Innovators
So what’s in a name?

Sometimes life comes at you in curious ways you cannot foresee. Recently, James Mosieur, CEO of RMS Communications and Cell For Cash wrote an article declaring “Collective Good - Cell Phone Recycling Benefits Society”. Of course, we couldn’t agree more! In his article, Mr. Mosieur uses the term “collective good” no less than nine times (see excerpts below) – why this sudden burst of love for our company? Maybe it is spring and love is in the air, or maybe he is actually Green with Envy, not environmentalism. CollectiveGood Mobile Phone Recycling has received lots of love over the years, including enormous amounts of press in almost every magazine and newspaper imaginable. How did CollectiveGood develop such a strong brand? By walking the talk, thinking outside of the box, and setting the highest standards for environmental stewardship in an industry otherwise focused on cutting corners, concealing ugly trade practices, and dumping toxic waste on developing world countries in stunning amounts.

So what has Mr. Mosieur so focused on our Good name? A cynic might think that this is some sort of devious plan to usurp our name, brand, and reputation for his own narrow business purposes by using search engine tactics to divert traffic that would be headed to CollectiveGood’s website – in short perhaps he is trying to steal a little bit of our glory. We choose instead to think that this is just a case of imitation being the sincerest form of flattery—it’s not the first time. Time will tell whether Mr. Mosieur, RMS and the many other imitators are ready and able walk the talk and act as the good environmental and corporate citizens they claim to want to be.

In the meantime, CollectiveGood cell phone recycling and RIPmobile Phone Recycling will continue to shine the path towards environmental stewardship and social responsibility. We welcome other good corporate citizens in making the world a cleaner and better place, and doing well by doing good. Come visit us and be a part of something special – you’ll like what you see, and feel good about the results.


Collective Good references in this silly article:
Collective Good - Cell Phone Recycling Benefits Society

Collective good is broadly defined as ‘all that is good for all people in a given community’

These types of operations are truly working for the collective good of their community.

It is easy to see how cell phone recycling becomes a benefit to society in general - a benefit to the collective good.

But even if the environmental danger is mitigated there exists a financial benefit to the collective good.

What could society do with $1 billion dollars? Could it be used for the collective good?

When we consider the environmental and financial benefits it’s obvious that cell phone recycling does add to the collective good.

So next time you upgrade your old cell phone or change to another service provider do your part for the environment, for your community, for our collective good – recycle your old cell phone.

RIPmobile and CollectiveGood honored with Innovative Social Entrepreneur Award by Small Business Development Council of Arlington, VA
Arlington, VA October, 28, 2005

RIPmobile’s parent company CollectiveGood was honored by the SBDC of Arlington, VA with its first ever Innovative Social Entrepreneur award for CollectiveGood’s successful mobile phone recycling business. CollectiveGood worked closely with the SBDC during the earliest days of the company to develop socially responsible business practices and to weave them into the fabric of the company. While the “dot bomb” implosion was occurring, the Arlington SBDC encouraged and helped CollectiveGood develop and maintain socially responsible business practices in very difficult and uncertain economic times. More than five and a half years later, CollectiveGood and its new division RIPmobile.com are thriving, with eleven employees, thousands of drop off points supporting hundreds of charities across the country and keeping more than 100 tons of toxic waste out of the nation’s landfills. RIPmobile.com is the company’s newest division, encouraging young people to recycle old cell phones by trading them for Cool Stuff. RIPmobile customers sell old cell phones to RIPmobile, in return getting credits that they convert into CircuitCity.com e-gift certificates, MSN Music downloads, ringtones, clothes and other items the choose. RIPmobile makes recycling feel as natural and easy as consuming – and as cool.

The Arlington Small Business Development Center (SBDC) was established in 1989 at the Arlington Campus of George Mason University. The center provides business information, technical assistance, management counseling and training to existing small businesses and new entrepreneurs. Any small business owner or person interested in starting a business may request assistance from the SBDC. http://www.arlingtonsbdc.org/index.htm