Wirefly Launches Trade In Program to Get Consumers to Recycle Wireless Devices

In an effort to lessen the impact of consumer electronics disposal on the environment while at the same time assisting charitable organizations, Wirefly, an online leader in one-stop comparison shopping for cell phones and wireless phone plans, has launched Wirefly.org, an initiative to let consumers trade in their old cell phones and other portable electronics devices for cash -- or donate the value of their trade-in towards a charity of their choice.

The goal of the program, which was developed in coordination with cell phone trade-in solutions leader Flipswap, is “to promote the safe recycling and reuse of old cell phones in a manner that benefits consumers, the environment and charitable organizations.” Charitable organizations benefiting from this effort include the Lance Armstrong Livestrong Foundation, Red Cross, ASPCA, Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, and Fisher House.

“The average American replaces their cell phone every 18 months, leaving millions of unused cell phones in America today that have outlived their purpose,” a press release announcing the initiative states.

As far as the trade-in part goes, Wirefly is offering impressive trade in values on some of the more popular cell phone and PDA models. For example, the company is offering $59 for the Palm Treo 650, $73 for the Motorola (News - Alert) KRZR and $75 the LG Chocolate, when the customer buys a new phone or PDA through the popular Wirefly Web site. Customers can opt to have the trade-in value donated to one of the charities. Wirefly claims it donates 100 percent of the full trade in value to the charitable organization a customer chooses. The company claims that “other cell phone recycling programs … tout large proceeds to charitable endeavors” but actually donate only small percentages of the trade in value.

"Wirefly and its parent InPhonic are together one of the largest distributors of wireless products in America today,” said Brian Westrick, president of Wirefly, in the press release. “As an industry leader with millions of customers and online shoppers, Wirefly recognizes that we have an unparalleled opportunity to give back to the community and educate consumers about the positive impact the wireless industry can have on environmental and social issues. Donating a retired cell phone won't cost Wirefly customers anything, but the value of their donated phones will be tremendous."

Wirefly makes it clear through the release that it does not actually handle the collection and recycling of the used cell phones and does not buy back used cell phones for the purpose of resale in any way. The goal of the program, therefore, is really to educate consumers about where they can take their cell phones to have them recycled and also to provide an incentive to get them to do this -- rather than just throwing their electronics devices in the trash when they’ve reached the end of their useful life.

Wirefly is an authorized dealer for every major cellular carrier, including Cingular Wireless, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile and Sprint (News - Alert). The company offers discounts and services not available in retail wireless stores, including real-time online order status and tracking, as well as low prices on mobile devices from Motorola, Nokia (News - Alert), Samsung, LG, BlackBerry and other manufacturers.

Meanwhile, Flipswap, Inc. is a pioneer in cellular phone reuse and value-added services for cell phone retailers and e-tailers.

For more information, visit www.wirefly.org and www.flipswap.com.

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Patrick Barnard is Associate Editor for Customer Interaction Solutions magazine and Assignment Editor for TMCnet. To see more of his articles, please visit Patrick Barnard’s columnist page.