Cell Phones (Photo credit: Scallop Holden)
ExchangeMyPhone, a Brooklyn based startup, will take a person’s old phone, erase all of their data from it and then recycle it or refurbish it for donation to the person’s choice from 765,000 charities. Anyone with an old phone can go on their website and get a price quote for their device, according to Crain’s. If a phone is very old or irreparably broken, then the company sends the customer a postage paid shipping label so that they can send it in to be recycled.
The average price quote for an old phone is about $50, according to co-founder Katherine Preston. After stripping all of the data and refurbishing the old phones, they then donate them to the customer’s designated charity. If a customer doesn’t designate a charity then the company sells the refurbished phone at very low prices to people who can’t afford a brand-new phone.
Ms. Preston also added that the company, “works with businesses to offer a solution to the problem of what to do with old cellphones when their employees upgrade. This program is really popular because it provides companies with a new revenue stream and gives them an easy way to donate to charity.”
In the past year, the company has recycled or resold about 10,000 phones and revenues are up more than 100% than last year.
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There’s an error in this article. The Crains article, that this piece was taken from, explains that the company has recycled or resold more than 10,000 phones (not the 500 mentioned in this article).