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Flipswap to Announce EPA Partnership
January 7th, 2008
Los Angeles, CA - January 29, 2008 - Flipswap Inc. (http://www.flipswap.com), a pioneer in mobile phone reuse, will announce its partnership with the EPA Waste Wise program at the Greener Gadgets Conference in New York on Feb 1st.
Flipswap Inc., founded in 2005 to provide an incentive for consumers to trade-in their old cell phones for reuse, is partnering with the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in a new initiative to increase consumer awareness of the importance of cell phone recycling. In 2007 Flipswap received over 150,000 used cell phones and mp3 players, and is widely regarded as a pioneer in incentive driven mobile device reuse. In 2007 Flipswap's efforts have prevented 50 tons of waste, most of it toxic, from entering landfills in the US and abroad.
As technology advances, Americans are frequently upgrading their phones, leaving perfectly functional handsets that go unused or are thrown away. Flipswap’s partnership in the EPA's Waste Wise Program will increase public awareness that these devices have not only a monetary value (sometimes as much as $200 according to the price guide on flipswap.com), but still have another long useful life ahead of them.
Today, developing countries all over the world depend more and more on telecommunications. According to the United Nations, wireless communication accounts for 76% of the phone usage in Africa, more than three times the landline usage. This makes inexpensive, second-hand cell phones an increasingly important tool for these developing economies.
Unfortunately, not all devices Flipswap receives can be reused. These devices are all carefully inspected, processed, and recycled in accordance with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14001 certification, a voluntary standard that facilitates improved environmental business management.
As a Waste Wise partner, Flipswap will help many of their business partners get on a more sustainable path. Many of Flipswap's established business to business services put them in a great position to lead by example and educate partners on how greener business practices can add value for customers, a natural fit for the EPA.
Flipswap CEO Sohrob Farudi will be attending the Greener Gadget Conference in New York, NY on February 1st to announce the EPA partnership and share sustainability ideas with other green focused technology firms from around the world.
About Flipswap
Flipswap makes it easy to give mobile phones a second shot at life by offering fast, free and eco-friendly ways to trade them in. The average American buys a new cell phone every 12 months, which means more than one hundred million perfectly good phones become unused, unwanted, and unloved every year. To help maximize the useful life of each phone, Flipswap created a unique way of collecting them so they could be put back into use. Now instead of being thrown in a drawer or in the trash, cell phones can be traded in for instant store credit at one of over 4,000 participating Flipswap retail locations or traded-in online. In 2007 alone Flipswap put enough phones back into use to keep the equivalent of 50 tons of solid waste, most of it toxic, out of landfills. So whether you’ve got one old phone in a drawer at home or a warehouse of overstocked or returned handsets, Flipswap’s family of services will pay you to be one of the good guys. It has never been this easy to be green! For more information, please visit Flipswap on the web at www.flipswap.com.