Sony to Cash in on Recycled Gizmos

To the left is a photograph by Chris Jordan depicting 426,000 cell phones, equal to the number of mobiles retired in the US every day. Wanna throw up? Yah. It's pretty amazing how much trash our gadget obsessed culture creates. But that doesn't mean we need to stop upgrading our computers and DVRs. Instead as consumers and manufacturers we need to make gizmo recycling a much larger priority.

Sony is working on doing just that, but their deep felt concern for the environment isn't what's running the program. Instead, an internal Sony study has found that the company could bank on discarded wares. Copper, which is prevalent in tons of our shiny toys is currently selling for upwards of $7,000 a ton -- three times its worth in 2002.

The aim is to process enough Sony-brand electronics castoffs to offset, pound for pound, every new product the company sells annually in the U.S...Waste Management Inc., Sony's partner in the recycling plan, already makes money selling materials such as copper retrieved from e-waste. In the future, Sony will get a cut. And while [Rick Clancy, Sony's senior-vice president of U.S. electronics units,] expects up-front costs to be "significant," Sony will try to make money without forcing consumers to absorb the cost.

Sony plans on having 75 drop-off centers in 18 states this month. That number would double next year, and eventually hit 1,000 locations. Each drop-off spot would take Sony products for free and rival brands for a small fee.

[via, you guess it, Business Week]

p.s. I'm catching up on other mags tonight so I'll be less of a BW groupie in posts to come.