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Secure the Call
Cell Phone Donations
 In
the United States today, there are over 50 million cell phones sitting
in drawers and closets. Additionally, over 40 million cell phones
are retired for newer models every year, with most ending up in
closets, drawers or landfills.
By 2005, 130
million cell phones will go out of service annually in the United
States, and the accumulated stockpile building up in our closets
and drawers will have grown to more than 300 million, according
to estimates in Bette K. Fishbein’s “Waste in the Wireless
World: The Challenge of Cell Phones,” published last June
by Inform, a nonprofit environmental research organization in New
York.
By law, any
cell phone that can be turned on can connect to 911. This is always
a free call and does not require a service plan or service provider
to dial. There are more than 100 different organizations in the
Washington, DC area that make free cell phones available that have
been reprogrammed for 911 emergency calls. Every organization works
independently but performs the same work to prepare the phones for
911 use.
Each phone must
go through the following process:
- Testing and
cleaning
- Clearing
of all stored numbers
- Recharging
of the battery
- Matching
the appropriate charger for the phone
- Reprogramming
for 911 and other numbers that the organizations require
Organizations
that need donated cell phones for 911 emergency calls include the
following:
- Police departments
- Neighborhood
watch groups
- Senior citizen
centers
- Domestic
violence organizations
The program
is designed to provide the service of collecting, reprogramming
and donating 911 emergency cell phones free of charge to any organization
that demonstrates a need for them. A small percentage of the phones
collected will be sold to the cell phone recycling industry in order
to cover the cost of reprogramming the donated phones.
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