The Afterlife of Cellphones

What happens when you toss your phone away? Most people go back to their carrier and give it to them to recycle or hope that they do. Well unfortunately most carriers don't. This article from NY Times gives a great story of what happens to yourcell phones once you get rid of them.

It also has a link to this site Greenphone.com. A company that will cut you a check for your old phone, and refurbishes it and sells it in the second hand market. Apparently each used phone has about one dollar of gold and copper in it which can be extracted by smelting your phone. Its amazing to see companies get wildly profitable from our waste, especially our electronics.