CellCycle.ca is not a charity.
My family and I have noble intentions for our cell phone recycling project but we are not a not-for-profit enterprise. Like many people, we’re trying to make a living by doing something good for our community and our planet. Some other cell phone recycling initiatives, however, even go so far as to use “charity” or “charitable” in their name and imply charitable status.
Don’t be fooled!
Charities are registered legal entities that must live up to certain conditions under the law. It is one thing for an organization to raise money for a charity and donate a portion of proceeds, but some companies in the recycling business imply that all money raised goes to charity.
We’ve begun to offer charitable fundraising as an alternative to our standard tree-planting commitment. What distinguishes us from companies that offer recycling for charity is that we believe in being up front and ethical about how much money a charity can expect to raise, we believe in paying charities for each cell phone they collect for us regardless of age or condition, and we believe in providing ethical downstream information about where collected phones ultimately end up for processing or reuse.
