Omaha, Neb. – Nebraska Furniture Mart has installed an ATM-like
recycling station that accepts used handsets and issues store credits in
return.
The automated buy-back system, developed by San Diego-based
ecoATM, accepts and electronically and/or visually inspects all mobile phones
and can compensate consumers with gift cards or receipts for store credit. The
company administers trade-in promotions for retailers and manufacturers, and
sells the used handsets through pre-auction/auction systems to secondary market
buyers and recyclers.
The system will soon support other portable CE devices regardless
of their condition, ecoATM said.
The first installation of the “ecycling” station was at Nebraska
Furniture Mart’s Omaha shopping complex, where it went live on Sept. 21. According
to Jay Buchanan, the retailer’s electronics division director, “The ecoATM
makes it easy and convenient for our customers to trade-in and recycle their
used mobile phones. This benefits both our customers and the environment.”
ecoATM described the installation as “an immediate success,” based
on the number of recycled handsets and the resulting trade-up purchases. “We
are extremely pleased with the initial results and consumers’ delight with the
system,” said CEO Mark Bowles. “Our automated ecoATM provides consumers and
retailers an easy, convenient, incentivized method to convert those devices
into real money instead of toxic waste.”
