The Courier-Journal – From trash to cash
From trash to cash
Eco-Cell recycles cell phones – and helps save gorillas
By Bill Wolfe
bwolfe@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal
Eco-Cell President Eric Ronay
Eric Ronay, president of Eco-Cell, gathers old cell phones. Eco-Cell pays zoos and other organizations up to $15 per phone donated through them. The average phone value is $1.67. (By Mary Ann Gerth, The Courier-Journal)
Americans discard more than 125 million broken or obsolete cellular telephones a year — a mountain of toxic trash that can leach arsenic, lead, beryllium, cadmium and other dangerous substances into the soil and ground water, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. But there’s also gold in cell phones, along with other valuable materials like silver, rhodium and palladium. A Louisville company, Eco-Cell, is mining the junked phones for their remaining value — and turning part of the proceeds back to nonprofit partners such as the Louisville Zoo.
“It actually enables you to do a very simple action to help participate in the conservation effort,” said Eric Ronay, Eco-Cell’s president.
Eco-Cell President Eric Ronay is aided by his wife, Lindsey Ronay, who serves as the accountant. (By Mary Ann Gerth, The Courier-Journal)
The company sells functional phones for use in areas such as Latin America, Africa and China — “places where you can’t necessarily afford a $350 (Palm) Treo, but you can buy a used cell phone for $15,” Ronay said. Phones that have outlived their usefulness are recycled for their raw materials.
Eco-Cell pays zoos and other participating organizations up to $15 per phone donated through them. The average phone value is $1.67.
“We resell as many phones as we can,” Ronay said. Working, late-model units bring the best prices, but the company accepts all cell phones and accessories, even if it’s likely to lose money on them, he said.
Eco-Cell is on target to collect 40,000 to 50,000 cell phones this year, Ronay said. That’s double the number last year and four times the count for 2004, when he came to the company.
Many of the phones are recycled through a Belgian company, Umicore. Newer batteries also are sold for reuse, while others go to the Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corp., a nonprofit, industry-supported organization, Ronay said.
Eco-Cell also promotes recycling as a way to preserve gorilla habitat in the Congo. Forests there are being destroyed to mine coltan (columbite-tantalite) ore. Conservationists believe that reducing the demand for coltan by reclaiming it from junked phones, will help save gorillas.
The conservation connection made the Eco-Cell collection program an easy sell for the zoo and its Gorilla Forest, said Mark Zoeller, the zoo’s assistant director.
“It was such a natural fit to what we are doing out here at the zoo … that it just became a great partnership,” he said.
So far, the zoo has received about $3,100 from the program, which “goes straight back to saving the gorillas” in wildlife-preservation efforts, Zoeller said. “It’s really a great program.”
The zoo program also has gained some major partners, including metro government and businesses such as E.ON U.S., parent of Louisville Gas and Electric Co., which placed a phone collection box at its headquarters last month. The zoo gets credit for phone donations by the energy company.
“It’s kind of a nice double dip. We get to do something really good for the environment, and then help the zoo as well,” said E.ON spokeswoman Chris Whelan.
The zoo was already a client when Ronay took the reins at Eco-Cell, founded by his father, Louisville entrepreneur Bill Ronay.
It seemed like a relationship that would appeal to zoos everywhere, said Eric Ronay, who consulted the membership list of the American Zoo and Aquarium Association “and called every single zoo in the United States.”
“It was just really pretty overwhelming how many signed up. We now have 57,” he said. That represents about 35 percent of the association’s zoo members, excluding sanctuary or research zoos, he said.
Eco-Cell maintains relationships with other nonprofit groups, such as Louisville’s Alley Cat Advocates, but zoos represent a tremendous donor base, Ronay said.
About 134 million people went to zoos in North America last year, he said, “more than major league baseball, football and basketball combined.”
In addition, zoos have “a huge volunteer force that’s willing to go out and help raise money” through programs like cell-phone recycling, Ronay said.
Eco-Cell distributes collection kits to clients, which periodically ship the phones to Louisville. Every day, the company receives about six boxes holding about 200 phones each. A staff member sorts the phones by brand and model, and the company sells them by auction.
“We don’t refurbish them. We don’t fix them. We don’t do anything with them other than get them in the inventory and get them out to bid,” Ronay said.
Other companies have tried to collect and repair, but “ended up being kind of mediocre at both. Plus, it adds a heck of a lot of overhead,” he said.
Ronay, 36, graduated from the University of Louisville with a bachelor’s degree in English and spent four years in the Navy, where he learned to work on computers. He turned to Eco-Cell after spending several years in computer networking.
That provided a steady paycheck, but Ronay wanted more.
“I didn’t like being compartmentalized. I wanted to see everything that was going on in whatever business I was working in. I could never just keep to my own little realm,” he said.
He works with his wife, Lindsey Ronay, who handles the company’s books.
What’s the business potential for Eco-Cell?
Eric Ronay isn’t certain, except that there’s plenty of room for growth.
“We really don’t know what that saturation point is,” he said, but “right now in this country, less than 5 percent of phones are being recycled.”
Reporter Bill Wolfe can be reached at (502) 582-4248.
