According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, only 10% of mobile phones are recycled in the US. An estimated 12 billion dollars is currently lying around in drawers across America in the form of old phones.

Most of the people are not even aware if mobile phones can be recycled at all and if they are aware, they do not know how to recycle it. To solve this problem, a new solution, called Eco ATM has been launched in the US. It is an automated reuse-and-recycle machine for consumer electronics.

It is a simple procedure, where consumers feed a slot on the ATM’s front with an old mobile phone. The attached cameras of the ATM are used to analyse the device's condition, searching for body cracks, dings and the like, and depending on the make, model and condition, the ATM determines its value.

Eco ATM does not dispense cash for an old device, but it offers a voucher for the store it’s installed in or let customer choose from an array of gift cards to be used elsewhere. However, if the machine assigns no resale value for a used mobile phone, customers can choose to have the handset recycled.

The manufacturers of the Eco ATM informed that although it currently accepts only used mobile phones, in the near future, other electronic gadgets, such as external storage devices, MP3 players and even old cameras can be recycled.