ReCellular specialise in collecting, reselling and recycling used wireless cell phones and accessories. Vivo are a mobile telecoms service provider to over 28 million consumers in the Southern Hemisphere.
The recycling programme is happening in 58 stores in three major cities, including 15 locations in Rio de Janeiro, 11 in Brasilia and 32 in Sao Paulo. The complete partnership will expand to in-store collection at up to over 4,000 collection points throughout Brazil.
Keeping as many cell phones as possible from reaching Brazil's landfills or polluting its environment is the main objective for the programme. Once the cell phones are received by ReCellular, they will be put through the Cell Phone Data Eraser programme in order to erase all previous data stored on the phone prior to reuse. Funds generated from the programme will go to local charities in the three participating cities.
ReCellular has been working for over 15 years with retailers, manufacturers, charitable groups and environmental organisations to create cell phone recycling solutions that benefit the public without impacting retailers in terms of cost or effort. The company already collects thousands of cell phones at drop-off locations around the United States and Canada, and then reconditions the equipment for resale in developing markets where new equipment is often cost-prohibitive.
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