Canada's major wireless providers are going green.

The big three - Bell, Rogers and Telus - are intent on keeping the flowing tide of old wireless devices from further inundating the country's landfills and dumps.

Rogers is dialing up dollars for Canada's food banks, Bell is donating money to a variety of charities and Telus says it is looking at setting up charitable donations once its wireless recycling program gets off the ground.

Rogers just launched its wireless recycling program into its second phase with the addition of addressed, postage-paid recycling envelopes for used cellphones in most of its new wireless products.

Credit: CNW Group
James McAra, left, of the Calgary Inter-Faith Food Bank, and Robert Gerrity of Rogers Wireless announce the next phase of the Rogers Phones for Food recycling program.

It has partnered with the Canadian Association of Food Banks (CAFB) to help raise close to $300,000 to feed the hungry since 2004.

The CAFB, a national organization representing a network of regional and community food banks, receives the phones or other wireless devices and forwards them to an American recycler for refurbishing or recycling.

"Each phone is worth between $2 and $5 depending on the age of the phone and its condition," says Micky Fraterman, communications manager for the Toronto-based CAFB. "They can also be a wireless device. The younger the phone (or device), the more it's worth as their parts are more current."

Since 2004, 142,000 cellphones have been collected by the CAFB through its program that partners with Petro-Canada and Purolator Courier, in addition to Rogers.

"It's really important that we do this," says Fraterman. "Cellphone users change handsets an average of every 18 months. So the old phone will end up in the waste stream if you don't have programs like this."

Rogers hopes to increase both the number of phones collected for recycling this year and the money food banks across Canada will receive.

"We have a target for this year of $250,000 (in funds for food banks) and that's just the beginning," says Robert Gerrity, director of marketing in Alberta for Rogers Communications.

"Certainly over the next couple of years, we think the program is going to expand quite a bit."

Gerrity attributes the increase to a strong initial response to the postage-paid envelopes that are now included with most of Rogers' new cellphones.

And he points out that old cellphones - regardless of whether they're a competitor's model - can still be dropped off to be recycled at Rogers outlets across the country.

Alternatively, an addressed postage-paid mailing label for old cellphones is also available online, ready to be printed.

Money raised from the Rogers cellphone collection stays in the community where the old phones are deposited. For the ones that are mailed in, the CAFB shares the funds with food banks across the country.

"We're trying to help our fellow citizens and the most attractive part of the program is that we're taking something that has no value to the people and turning that into money for food banks," says Gerrity.

Bell stores in Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia and Quebec will also take all cellphones for recycling.

In four years, Bell has recycled more than 232,000 phones and diverted more than 57 metric tonnes of cellphones, wireless batteries and other accessories from landfills.

"We started doing this four years ago," says Bell Canada spokesman Jeff Meerman. "Bell is a green company and we want to take responsibility for the products we sell. We want to address the growing issue of electronic waste."

Bell also provides a prepaid postage label, available on its website, for those who want to send in a phone to be recycled.

In addition, Bell has provided refurbished cellphones to 1,800 women in 170 women's shelters. "It's a way for us to give back to the community," adds Meerman.

Meanwhile, Telus recycled 10,000 old cellphones in 2005 and another 10,000 in 2006.

The number of cellphone accessories that have been recycled - primarily batteries - jumped from 20,000 in 2005 to 80,000 last year.

"As of yet, the (recycling) program has not broken even, but as it grows we expect that it will," says Telus spokesman Shawn Hall.

Once the recycling starts generating a revenue stream, the money will likely be donated to charity.

Telus also takes competitors' phones and old wireless devices can be dropped off at a Telus store.

Web Watch: www.think-food.com (Phones For Food) (Laura Severs can be reached at laura@businessedge.ca)