Step 1: Assess family phone needs. Business or personal communication? Primarily text or do family members still actually talk on the phone? Make a list and find the phones that best match lifestyle needs.

Step 2: Evaluate current plans. Study the offerings, scope out upgrade eligibility and family savings and go for the best value.

Step 3: Properly dispose of the old phones that are being hoarded in drawers and cabinets. More than half of Americans (57 percent) say they have old electronics that they need to dispose of or discard, including cellphones (46 percent), computers (33 percent) and TVs (25 percent), followed by cordless phones (19 percent) and rechargeable batteries (17 percent).

Many people are unaware that like newspapers and plastic, –cellphones and the rechargeable batteries that power them - can also be recycled. The nationwide Call2Recycle^® program provides a no cost, simple solution to recycling rechargeable batteries and cellphones in North America. 

For consumers, it’s as simple as bringing used rechargeable batteries and cellphones to one of the 30,000 collection locations available nationwide, including retailers such as Best Buy, The Home Depot, Lowe’s, RadioShack or Staples. Students can bring their old rechargeable batteries and cellphones with them on their back-to-school shopping sprees and drop them in the branded Call2Recycle collection box in these stores 

According to Carl Smith, CEO and president of Call2Recycle, “A recent survey shows that Americans increasingly feel an obligation to recycle, and that they share responsibility with manufacturers and others to reduce the environmental impact of many products.” Since 1996, Call2Recycle has diverted more than 70 million pounds of rechargeable batteries from local landfills and established a network of 30,000 recycling drop-off locations. For more information and to find local drop-off locations, visit www.call2recycle.org.