Chrysler Group Cell Phone Donation Benefits Local Charities
19 Junio 2007 - 3:46PM
PR Newswire (US)
AUBURN HILLS, Mich., June 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Each year,
more than 135 million cellular phones are sent to landfills as
millions of users upgrade to newer models at a rate of nearly
350,000 phones each day. Dave Knuth, Manager -- Voice and Wireless
Operations for DaimlerChrysler, recognized that his company had its
own surplus of obsolete phones and was determined to do something
about it. Knuth arranged for the donation of more than 3,000
out-of-service phones to local charity. Knuth saw the opportunities
as two-fold. Charities could use the equipment to provide
much-needed access for low-income families and victims of domestic
abuse. Secondly, discarded cell phones pose an ecological risk if
they are disposed of improperly. "You don't want these things to
end up in landfills," said Knuth. "Just like computers or any form
of electronics, if cell phones are not handled properly and end up
in a landfill, they create tremendous amounts of toxic waste."
Enter The Wireless Source, an Oakland County, Mich., charity that
recycles these phones on behalf of assistance organizations,
re-purposing old models for new users and donating the proceeds
from the sale. The charity, which has been in operation for 12
years, was created to address the growing need for an intermediary
between business and the charitable community. "As the markets were
starting to broaden and people moved from one phone to the next,
the question was 'what do we do with these phones?'" said Bob
Sullivan, President and CEO, The Wireless Source. "The
infrastructure just wasn't in place to deal with these issues, and
those phones can be redeployed in areas or markets where they
really have some use." Knuth's charity contact, Margaret Schneider,
Development Coordinator for Charitable Recycling at the Wireless
Source, recognized the opportunity and led him through the various
steps necessary to complete the transfer. "He was interested in
donating the phones to a charitable organization," said Schneider.
"When the phones come to us, we not only check their functionality,
but we also completely scrub all personal data to the phone's
original state." After this process is successfully completed, the
phones are ready for secondary markets and the proceeds from their
sale can be allocated to the intended charitable organizations.
Knuth and Schneider donated the proceeds to The Lighthouse, a
prominent Oakland County charity. Given the national two percent
cell phone recycling rate, Knuth's proposal was gratefully accepted
and was anything but business- as-usual. "DaimlerChrysler should be
applauded," said Sullivan. "There are a lot of corporations that
have these assets and don't apply them to charity." Proceeds from
the sale of the phones will be used to fund programs that provide
assistance for low-income Oakland County residents. DATASOURCE:
Chrysler Group CONTACT: David Elshoff, of Chrysler Group,
+1-248-512-2690, +1-248-797-2300 (cell), Web site:
http://www.media.daimlerchrysler.com/
http://www.daimlerchrysler.com/
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