U.S. consumers purchase on the order of 500 million new electronic devices annually. That adds up to one big heap of trash. To help lessen the load and enable consumers to recoup some of their electronic investments, ecoATM now offers eCycling Stations. These are kiosks to which people feed their old cell phones and get, on average, $25 in the process.
San Diego-based ecoATM is right at home demonstrating its kiosk this week on the CTIA (News - Alert) show floor.
The company’s kiosks feature a friendly robot character (which reminds me of Eve in the Disney (News - Alert) movie Wally) to guide users through the process of scanning their phones to understand their make, model and condition. Customers are then provided with the value of the devices, and given the option of donating some or all of that amount to a charity, or receiving the cash payout.
To avoid becoming a channel for stolen devices, the ecoATM kiosks require visitors to provide their driver’s licenses and thumbprints. The stations also contain cameras.
Since launching its first eCycling Station in February, ecoATM has installed 25 kiosks, mostly in southern California, in malls and other public venues. Mark Bowles, co-founder and chief marketing officer of the company, tells TMCnet that ecoATM plans to double the number of its public kiosks this year, expanding into northern California in the process. By the end of 2012, he adds, ecoATM will expand east, and should have between 700 and 800 kiosks deployed in the U.S.
Bowles says ecoATM has partnerships with a wide variety of businesses, which use the devices for scrap, or refurbish them for reuse in the U.S. and abroad. The company, which got its start via support from incubator EvoNexus, notes that upgrade cycles continue to get shorter as gadget manufacturers up the ante with new features, and that the average U.S. household owns 26 different consumer electronic devices.
Edited by
Jennifer Russell
