If you’re like me, you are always looking for ways that you can make money and help the environment. Welp, here is one such way that I will try soon, since I have two old cell phones sitting at home unused.

Why Cell Phones Hurt The Environment

Old cell phones should not just be thrown away in normal household garbage, yet Americans are getting rid of more than 100 million cell phones a year this way! Cell phones contain a lot of toxic materials, such as lead, zinc, and arsenic. When cell phones are thrown away in an ordinary dump, their toxic chemicals can leech out into water sources. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like too much arsenic in my water.

What Can You Do With Old Cell Phones

Instead of throwing away old cell phones, you can use them as a crude yet effective hammer. Either that, or you can donate your cell phone or sell them. Look for donation areas at your local schools, grocery stores, or even your church. They will go to needy people, or maybe even an old person who’d like to be able to chat with their friends.

Donating cell phones is a great way to reduce their harmful impact on the environment. But even better than donating them is selling them! But who would buy an old cell phone? Cell For Cash or SellYourCell, that’s who. They offer between $2 and $200 depending on the model of the phone and how old it is. Even if you get the bare minimum, $2 is a heck of a lot better than just throwing away your cell phone and hurting the Earth.

Where do the Old Cell Phones Go?

It turns out that a lot of the old cell phones go to Latin America or the Caribbean. A lot of these countries are developing, and it’s cheaper for people to get cell phones as opposed to telephone companies running cable every which way through the country. They already have good wireless networks, so there is a demand for cheap cell phones down there. You can be happy that your old cell phone will be used by someone who really needs it.

I’m about to go out of town, but once I come back, I’ll actually try out one of those cellphone-selling sites and see if I can get rid of my old cell phones in an eco-friendly (and profitable) way. If anyone else tries it out, let me know how it worked out.