Cell phone chargers GRRRRRR

[aj]

When will there be a way to recycle cell phone chargers?! I am so frustrated with this. I have recycled all old/damaged/out of date cell phones (save one gigantic one that is just too hilarious to let go of quite yet) and here I am stuck with all of the chargers. More recent ones find homes, but what about the oldies?

Will this ever be possible? Really, they should just all use the same chargers. So frustrating.

Anybody hear any recent news on electronics chargers and what to do with them?



***if there has been recent info on this, I apologize, as I was forced to take a brief hiatus from the forum due to lots of craziness and a very hectic and stressful schedule***

[tigerlily78]

Our local electronics recycling place will take cell chargers and all other kinds of cords, but you do have to pay them to take it. (Except twice a year when they run a community collection event, then it is FREE).

If you have one of those Computer Recycling places, you could also call and ask them if they will take it. Generally those places accept your goods without charge.

Wouldn't it be sublime if ALL cell chargers had to have the same connector? Ahh... that will be the day.

Good luck, hope you are able to find a soultion. : )

[NiHaoMike]

Sell them or give them away. You'll always find someone who can use them.

Or just keep them around for other stuff. Some of the newer high efficiency cell phone chargers make great power supplies for LEDs.

[purplepeopledesign]

Give them to schools for students in technical programs.

They can be used to power up all sorts of small electronics projects, charge up batteries and when disassembled, will yield useful circuits that can be incorporated into larger projects.

:)ensen.

[NiHaoMike]

Give them to schools for students in technical programs.

They can be used to power up all sorts of small electronics projects, charge up batteries and when disassembled, will yield useful circuits that can be incorporated into larger projects.

ensen.

Yeah, I always keep those "wall warts" from all sorts of electronic devices. The regulated ones make an acceptable substitute for a bench power supply. The current-limited ones are the nicest as they work great for charging batteries or powering LED arrays.
I have a homemade bench power supply (made almost completely from recycled parts!) rated for 5v/5A, 12v/2A, and 1.8-18v/3A for most experimentation uses. However, I'm currently using a 30v/500mA wall wart from an old printer to power a flyback transformer as 18v primary drive doesn't work very well. I have also rewound two old halogen lamp transformers into a single isolation transformer good for 1A, and I still have a good amount of thick wire from the secondaries.

[aj]

I haven't found a place in Chicago yet, but tell me more about giving them to students... what kind of schools should I check with? I'm in Chicago, so there's gotta be someone who wants them.

[s30lee]

Well, while you're waiting for someone to give some more specifics... maybe consider listing them as available on freecycle.org, and/or craigslist.com?

[Scott1620]

Staples does a tech recycling program here
http://www.staples.com/sbd/cre/marketin ... ndex2.html

found via http://earth911.org/

[aj]

Yeah, craigslist was the new plan. I've never checked out freecycle before! Thanks for the info. I'll look into that as well.

[eugene]

Staples won't take the chargers, just the phones. They basically sell them to the companies who resell them, as refurbished.
You have to call and verify anything on earth911, the information there is very innacurate. For Columbus OH example not a single place listed on earth911 will take recycling from an individual, they all want your business to pay a monthly fee to have them pick up stuff.

[belandil]

Of course, part of the problem is that every cellphone has a unique charger, with differing voltages, currents, and receptacle designs. If chargers were standardized (and I don't really think there's a reason they couldn't be), then we wouldn't need to produce as many and much waste would be eliminated. Additionally, you'd be able to use your friend's charger (something I know I can't do most of the time).

This concept could be extended to other small devices, such as PDAs, mp3 players, gaming systems, etc, so that all work on the same standard. Think how USB made computer peripherals much easier to interface. We need the same thing for chargers.

[greengoesfaster]

I found this site that will pay for shipping and will recycle cel phone chargers and also the phones and other accessories. http://recyclemycellphone.org/recycle.cfm It seems like a really great company.

[SoCalSolar]

As far as standardization of chargers - not sure a single standard would work, but - to thro a number out there - why could we not have 3 standards... instead of multiple per brand? I am not an electronics expert, but I would imagine that outside of sales/profit issues (...which are big issues to overcome), 3 standards that take into consideration socket type and voltage requirements should do.

NiHaoMike - any suggested basic electronics reading or sources you could recommend on the types of bench power setups like you have? I bet alot of us could utilize such reuse for some of our alternative power stuff!

...a note on phone chargers. I have been working with my teenage daughter on remembering to unplug her phone charger - but I noticed it never gets warm... so I hooked it up to my Kill-a-watt for a week (with her charging it everynight, and leaving it plugged in with no phone all day). After a week it registered one-onehundreth of a kwh... so it uses some energy, but less than I thought - like all month it would use about 0.04 kwh. It registered 0.00 watts when no phone was attached. It may be pulling an even smaller amount, but certainly not 1 or 2 watts while not charging. It's from Samsung.

[purplepeopledesign]

...a note on phone chargers. I have been working with my teenage daughter on remembering to unplug her phone charger - but I noticed it never gets warm... so I hooked it up to my Kill-a-watt for a week (with her charging it everynight, and leaving it plugged in with no phone all day). After a week it registered one-onehundreth of a kwh... so it uses some energy, but less than I thought - like all month it would use about 0.04 kwh. It registered 0.00 watts when no phone was attached. It may be pulling an even smaller amount, but certainly not 1 or 2 watts while not charging. It's from Samsung.

That's because all the new chargers for small devices do not use transformers that draw power any time the primary coil is plugged in. Instead they use electronics that "sense" if there is a device plugged into the output and then turn on the input.

:)ensen.

[wolfspirit]

As far as standardization of chargers - not sure a single standard would work, but - to thro a number out there - why could we not have 3 standards... instead of multiple per brand? I am not an electronics expert, but I would imagine that outside of sales/profit issues (...which are big issues to overcome), 3 standards that take into consideration socket type and voltage requirements should do.

Thankfully, a lot of companies have started to use the mini-USB standard to charge as well as communicate with their phones. There are 4 different cell phones in my house, and 3 of them use that standard (I decided to try and make my phone last a 3rd year, and see what models are out then).

Of course, it is actually more likely to see them using the same BATTERY before the same charger. I can swap out my battery with about 45 other phones, but the charger I have works for 2 models.....

Steven