Think green when retiring those obsolete digital devices

A tougher question is what you do with your used cellphone or computer. Environmentally, digital devices are far more toxic when dumped in a landfill than an innocuous aluminum can, filled as they are with lead, mercury, and a material called gallium arsenide, which can degrade into the poison arsenic.

The consumer electronics industry is brilliant at coming up with enticing new products that persuade you to pry open your wallet. And the newly mandated ability to take your phone number from one wireless carrier to another means that many people will be ditching their old handsets and getting new ones for Christmas.

But the industry is brain dead when it comes to providing consumers with an easy way to recycle older products rendered obsolete by the latest wave of technology.

Only about 11 percent of all personal computers wind up being recycled, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, and cellphones fare even worse. Only 2.5 million phones have been collected by the major recycling programs since they were started. That number represents less than 1 percent of the total number of phones that are "retired" in a single year. (Digital cameras and camcorders are even less likely than phones to be recycled.)

"The bottom line is, when you drop a BlackBerry, Palm Pilot, beeper or cellphone into the garbage, it winds up in a landfill or incinerator, where it affects human health and the environment," says Eric Most, a senior research associate at Inform Inc, a Manhattan-based nonprofit that explores ways that businesses can be more environmentally conscious. "Too few people know that digital devices can be reused or recycled."

So, as you gear up for your holiday shopping, let me offer a few environmentally sound options for putting elderly devices out to pasture.

You can drop off old cellphones, pagers, and personal digital assistants at any Staples store in the United States. What happens after that? Phones that can be resold often wind up being shipped off to South America, India, or Eastern Europe, and a small donation (between $2 and $25, depending on the model of phone) is made to the Sierra Club. Phones that have no value on the secondary market -- about half of all those that are donated -- are recycled by a Georgia company called Collective Good.

If you'd prefer to designate the charity that benefits from your donation, you can go to www.collectivegood.com and pick from a list of about 50 nonprofits. But you'll be responsible for mailing your phone to Collective Good.

Locally, businesses can donate old cellphones, as well as empty toner and inkjet cartridges, through a Stoughton firm called Recycling Donation Center, www.recyclingdonation.com. Businesses can select a charity to benefit from their donations.

At www.wirelessrecycling.com, consumers can find out where to drop off or ship their old phones, and charities can also set up their own collection programs to raise funds. (It's important to note that Collective Good, Recycling Donation Center, and ReCellular, which runs WirelessRecycling.com, are for-profit businesses, and so it's a good idea to ask about, and later verify, the average amount that the companies say will be donated for each device.)

TecsChange is a Roxbury-based nonprofit that's in need of all sort of laptop and desktop computers, laser printers, 17-inch monitors, and networking gear. (There's a comprehensive wish list at www.tecschange.org.) The equipment is spruced up and passed along to other local nonprofits, and also organizations that conduct human-rights monitoring around the world. In addition, TecsChange teaches a periodic computer repair course using donated equipment.

"It's a very hands-on course," says Betsy Rueda Gynn, the director of TecsChange. "Students take things apart and put them back together. It's an extremely useful class for anyone who is thinking about going into the computer field." And at the end of the six-week course, students take home their own working PC.

The World Computer Exchange is a nonprofit that ships container-loads of computers to Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. In October, they packed a 40-foot shipping container with 450 Pentium PCs and 20 Power Macs destined for Bolivia, where the machines will be used to connect 35 Quecha Indian schools to the Internet. The group has a drop-off site in Hull. Info at www.worldcomputerexchange.org.

Many other local non-profits, including YouthBuild Boston (www.ybboston.org) and Young Tech Entrepreneurs (www.

yte.org), are constantly hunting for donations of working computer equipment from individuals and businesses. Individual manufacturers like Dell, Compaq, and Apple, all support recycling programs. In most cases, though, you're responsible for paying shipping costs that can range from $7.50 to $30, but some makers offer you a discount on your next purchase if you recycle your old machine.

In Massachusetts, it's actually illegal to toss out an old computer monitor or television because of their lead content. You can find information about recycling at www.state.ma.us/dep/recycle/crt/crthome.htm.

Individuals and businesses can do the right thing by making it a habit to find a worthy recipient -- or a recycler -- who will happily take possession of graying gadgets.

But lawmakers and industry need to play a part, too.

Wireless carriers ought to be required to offer you the option of continuing to use your existing phone, whenever technically possible, when you switch your service from one carrier to another. That would prevent consumers from throwing away a perfectly good phone and learning to use a new one. (Those new phones are also never really free, either; cell carriers hide the cost of your new handset in your monthly bills.)

Wireless storefronts and computer outlets should all serve as collection points, either for recycling programs or for nonprofits eager to get their mitts on equipment that still works.

Newly manufactured devices should be emblazoned with information, either a phone number or a Web address, that educates consumers about recycling options.

After all, we print recycling info on a Coke can. Why not a cellphone?

Scott Kirsner is a contributing editor at Fast Company. He can be reached at skirsner@verizon.net.