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This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Robert Siegel.
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And NPR's Elizabeth Shogren reports that today, the agency is launching a new campaign to try to change that.
ELIZABETH SHOGREN: The EPA is joining forces with cell phone companies to coax Americans to recycle their phones. The agency says recycling all the old ones could save as much energy as 200,000 homes use in a year. So far, only about one-fifth of the phones used in America are recycled.
MIKE NEWMAN: Consumers don't realize how easy it is to recycle your phone these days.
SHOGREN: That's Mike Newman, vice president of ReCellular, a Michigan-based company that recycled four million phones last year. Newman says most cell phone companies collect old phones at retail stores or customers can mail them in. Often, the companies sell them to recyclers and give the money to charity.
NEWMAN: Cell phone recycling is one of those rare win-win-wins. It's a win for the environment because you're keeping those materials out of our landfills. It's a win for the charities that are supported from the value of these phones. And then it's a win for people around the world who want access to cell phone technology but often can't afford the new phones.
SHOGREN: Cathy Hill is the president of a Chicago-based cell phone recycler called HOBI International.
CATHY HILL: The plastic can be reused, the metals, the copper, the chemicals that make up the battery, the lithium can be reused, so it's all recyclable.
SHOGREN: Hill says some parts can even be resold like LCD screens and keypads.
HILL: There is tremendous resources that can be easily gleaned through proper recycling of electronics. And quite frankly, it's getting very, very easy to do.
SHOGREN: Elizabeth Shogren, NPR News, Washington.