If you are considering a new phone for the holidays, that means you have to get rid of an old one. But instead of contributing to the toxic waste in landfill, you can recycle your phone, and get paid for it.
There are several services, but none, it seems, quite as simple as Flipswap, which lets you trade in your phone at local store (it has more that 6,000 on record) for credit, or online for cash.
Here's how it works. Go to the Flipswap site and enter your Zip code. It will give you a list of nearby Flipswap merchants, like Best Buy in some areas, which take your phone in trade or will offer store credit.
Alternately, you can click to trade in online; type your model of phone, and the site tells you how much the phone is worth. The site issues a printable prepaid postage label, then you send the phone in. When it arrives, if it's in the shape you say it is, a check is sent out. The process generally takes three weeks or you can send the phone straight to Amazon.com for a gift card.
If you are wondering what will happens to the phones (the service has taken more than 700,000 so far), they are refurbished and sold outside the United States. If the phone can't be reused it's recycled, and a tree is planted by CarbonFund.org.
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