NYC sanitation teams up with Verizon Wireless
Annual event to help support domestic violence survivors

Sanitation Commissioner John J. Doherty announced that the New York City Department of Sanitation’s Bureau of Waste Prevention, Reuse and Recycling is again teaming up with Verizon Wireless to collect old cell phones at its annual Electronics Recycling and Clothing Donation events this fall.

Similar collections, conducted in all five boroughs this past spring, generated more than 1,100 pounds of cell phones and accessories.

Phones collected at the recycling event will be donated to the Verizon Wireless HopeLine program, which will refurbish, recycle or sell the phones and donate the proceeds to domestic violence advocacy groups in the form of cash grants and prepaid wireless phones for victims. Phones that cannot be refurbished are disposed of in an environmentally sound manner.

The City’s first 2008 Fall Electronics Recycling and Clothing Donation Events was held September 7 in Brooklyn.

“HopeLine was created more than 10 years ago as a means for Verizon Wireless to put its products and services to work to help survivors of domestic violence and help the environment at the same time,” said Pat Devlin, president of Verizon Wireless’ New York Metro Region. “More than $5 million in cash grants has been awarded to local shelters and groups working to fight family violence across the nation, and nearly 60,000 wireless phones with airtime have helped survivors rebuild their lives.”

In addition to the City’s neighborhood recycling events, HopeLine phone donations are accepted year-round at all Verizon Wireless Communications Stores in New York City and across the nation.