A company that manages wireless accounts for some of the largest corporations in the United States has teamed up with a firm that is well known for recycling handsets.
Rivermine Inc. struck a deal with ReCellular Inc. to provide its enterprise customers as a way to recycle and refurbish its old handsets. Rivermine said it serves more than 250 companies, which include many Fortune 1000 corporations and large government agencies.
ReCellular has been in the business of recycling devices for more than 17 years and has recycling partnerships in place with industry trade association CTIA, Verizon Wireless, AT&T Mobility and Sprint Nextel Corp. The company also recently inked a deal with Tangoe Inc., a company that specializes in providing telecommunication lifecycle solutions to businesses.
The deal with Rivermine gives ReCellular direct contact with corporations that have large wireless accounts.
“Our goal as a company is to recycle as many phones as possible,” said Suman Dutta, VP at ReCellular. “We wanted to work closer with corporations. We are partnering with the leader in the managed wireless space.”
Thousands of devices
Jim Carroll, an executive VP at Rivermine, said on average that the company’s customers have between 4,500 to 5,000 wireless devices spread among their workforce. Clients of the company include Grant Thornton, IKON Office Solutions and the United States Postal Service.
Rivermine manages wireline and wireless spending for these companies. Rivermine will order, manage inventory, audit and now has a secure way to recycle handsets that corporations no longer need.
“We have clients that have closets full old cell phones that have been boxed up,” Carroll said. “They really don’t know what to do with them.”
Partnering with ReCellular addresses two issues for corporations interested in getting rid of their old devices. The first is companies can get rid of their devices in a way that is friendly to the environment. The second issue is clearing devices of sensitive corporate information.
“Everyone is green conscious right now,” Carroll said. “ReCellular has been doing something for a very long time that is now in the spotlight.”
Along with the environmental aspect, ReCellular has a program that deletes corporate and personal data from phones.
“ReCellular will wipe the data off the smartphone before it is recycled,” Carroll said.
Secondary markets
Corporations that participate in the program pay no cost and are given a report that details each phone that is received and which departments within the company are using the program. ReCellular will also keep companies notified in how many total devices are being recycled.
ReCellular will also refurbish handsets so they can be reused by the company or resold into secondary markets.
“We can also get value out of the various parts of a device,” Dutta said.
With a deal in place, ReCellular and Tangoe have created the CommCare Mobile Recycling Program. Global 2000 organizations worldwide use Tangoe solutions to manage their telecommunications processes.
In a statement, Tango Chief Marketing Officer Craig Gosselin said the new program will help companies reduce waste and protect the environment.
“It has been estimated that approximately 130 million cell phones are replaced each year in the U.S. alone, generating about 65,000 tons of waste,” Gosselin said. “The CommCare program helps to stem these staggering statistics.”
Dutta said the company is on pace to recycle 6 million phones this year and 7 million in 2009.
“There is no reason why every phone shouldn’t be recycled,” he said.
