The Cellphone Disposal Debacle

My current cellphone has fallen apart. There is a thick crack running down it's center and the digit 5 no longer responds to pressure, making it impossible to dial a number not already in my contact list that contains the letters JKL. In my bottom drawer at home, where all my odds and ends retire, live my two previous cellphones. I haven't known what to do with them, so I've carried them around for years to different homes, waiting for the time when I'll know exactly the best option for their retirement . I guess I will go and purchase a new one or a previously used one which makes me wonder where cellphones go to die. Being such a small piece of technology, I contemplated how many I would go through in my lifetime; how much personal waste I would create by upgrading phone technology every couple of years. What's true is that those gadgets sometimes break, as their shelf life is not considerably lengthy. What's also true is that most people don't wait for that phone to break down - the allure and the financial reality of a new product is more of the reason why we have mountains of used cellphones that our world is trying to come to terms with. This is what I discovered: 1.2 billion phones were sold in 2007, and in the U.S. we toss out cellphones on average every 12 months.
Ok. So what are our options? A company called Collective Good exists so that people can send in their unwanted cell phones which are then either resold to people who cannot afford new phones or sold as scrap. Portions of the sale are then donated to one of 500 charities selected by the phone's original owner. Also, GreenPhone.com exists, as a place to send your unwanted cellphones, free of charge, and, in return, receive a check with an amount depending on its make and model. The free postage is available by downloading from the website or one can turn them in at any FedEx Kinko's or Staples. ReCellular is America's largest reseller of cellphones ending up in 40 other countries where they are refurbished and resold. Their phones come from Verizon, AT&T, Sprint.
"The United States Geological Survey estimates that in 2005 there were already more than half a billion old phones sitting in American drawers. That added up to more than $300 million worth of gold, palladium, silver, copper and platinum."
Just don't throw them in the trash. All of them leach lead. Besides potentially leaching lead into our environment via landfill, that is, if they reach true landfill- many end up in the water, burned or in other self-designated dumps - there are more than 200 chemical compounds living inside every phone. According to the United States Geological Survey, they estimate that in order to obtain the gold used in the circuitry of cellphones, over 220 pounds of waste is created. There is a company in Belgium which takes in dead electronics and extracts precious metals such as gold and copper through a smelter and acid baths.
We have some options. The most important is to use our current phones until they can no longer dial the number 5.