Students are constantly upgrading their cellular phones, tossing the old ones into the trash or leaving them to collect dust.
Instead of adding to landfills, students could place the phones into the hands of domestic violence victims or provide money for charity.
Peter Benison, member of the International Association of Electronics Recyclers, said people are throwing their cell phones away because they don't know what their options are.
The average time-span a person keeps a phone is 18 months, Michelle Gilbert, spokeswoman for Verizon Wireless, said.
Because so many people are replacing their cell phones and throwing the old ones away, companies and organizations have formed ways to put unused cell phones to greater use by helping others. Ball State is making an effort to collect cell phones but is not having a lot of success because it's trying to change the behaviors of today's throw-away society.
Ball State and the Indiana Recycling Coalition have been working together, and in January placed four E-Collection boxes throughout campus. However, Ball State's superintendent of grounds Michael Planton, who is also a board member of the Indiana Recycling Coalition, said he has not collected many phones.
"I don't even have enough to fill a Girl Scout cookie box," Planton said.
Planton said the purpose of these efforts is to get the phones before they end up in landfills.
According to INFORM, an environmental research group, by 2005, 100 million cell phones will either be put away or thrown away annually.
Jenifer Chambers, director of charitable and environmental programs at ReCellular, a cell phone refurbishing company, said, "When a cell phone goes to a landfill, there is a danger that the hazardous material in the phone will get into the water and soil."
Those materials include antimony, arsenic, beryllium, copper, lead, zinc and biominated flame-retardants.
Those toxins do not break down easily and have been known to be associated with cancer and neurological and developmental disorders, according to INFORM.
Because of these dangers, the number of recycling facilities accepting cell phones has increased.
Planton said Ball State's program came in preparation of an expected increase of unused cell phones.
In 2003, there were 140 million cell phone subscriptions, according to INFORM.
That number is predicted to increase to about 175 million by 2005.
The number of cell phones not being used is also expected to increase because of cellular companies' new option, announced in November. The new option allows people to switch their carriers, but keep their original number.
In most of these cases, customers are required to buy a new cell phone because technology varies among carriers.
Along with the increase in cell phones replacement, society is prone to throwing things away they no longer use.
Ione Deollos, associate professor of sociology, said when people buy a new cell phone, they think their old one is outdated and either trash it or stuff it away somewhere.
People like to hang on to things they're familiar with, Deollos said. But she also thinks people live in a throw-away society.
Deollos said it's habit for people to throw things away they consider old. The answer to this, she said, is creating awareness that these unused cell phones might be of value to others.
Ball State refurbishes collected phones that still work and donates them to A Better Way domestic violence center.
All others are sent to recycling facilities where they will be dissembled and shipped out for other uses.
Other organizations are also taking old cell phones and using them to help others, including cellular companies and the city of Muncie.
On March 1, the Muncie Sanitary District placed E-Collection boxes in local government buildings, post offices and banks.
All profits from recycling and reselling the phones will be donated to the Muncie Mission.
Nikki Grigsby, public relations and education director at Muncie Sanitary District, said if the phone cannot be refurbished, it will be sent to ReCellular.
Muncie's Verizon Wireless store is also collecting cell phones to be recycled through its HopeLine Program.
Verizon's HopeLine sells most of its refurbished phones but has also provided phones to domestic violence shelters.
Benison said with all the good that unused cell phones can bring, people shouldn't be discarding them as easily.
"With all the options out there now, cells shouldn't go into a landfill," Benison said.
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