Cell phones and other electronic devices also contain hazardous materials such as lead, mercury, cadmium, arsenic and brominated flame retardants. Many of those materials can be recycled and reused; none of them should go into landfills where they can contaminate air, soil, and groundwater

Recycling one million cell phones also saves enough energy to provide electricity to 185 U.S. households for a year.

For every one million cell phones recycled, we can recover 75 pounds of gold, 772 pounds of silver, 33 pounds of palladium, and 35,274 pounds of copper; cell phones also contain tin, zinc, and platinum.

If Americans recycled all of the 130 million cell phones that are tossed aside annually in the United States, we could save enough energy to power more than 24,000 homes for a year.

Recycling just one cell phone saves enough energy to power a laptop for 44 hours.

Only about 10 percent of the cell phones used in the United States are recycled.