It’s Like an ATM for Old Cell Phones

Would you trade-in your old cell phone for cash? A company called ecoATM™ is betting that you will, and just might make some money for itself in the process. Recently, the award-winning San Diego startup introduced its new eCycling Station, a fully-automated kiosk with a built-in cash dispenser like works like an automated teller machine (ATM). Instead of inserting your bank card, however, you deposit your old cell phone. A touchscreen display guides you through the process.

ecoATM unveiled the eCycling Station at DEMO Spring 2011, a trade show for emerging technologies that began last week in Palm Desert, California and which ends today. The company's new self-service kiosk uses patented machine vision technology along with electronic diagnostics and artificial intelligence to evaluate consumer electronics and offer cash or a store credit. ecoATM bills its innovation as "the first fully-automated consumer electronics recycling kiosk with a built-in cash dispenser".

Matt Marshall, the executive producer of DEMO, seems as excited about ecoATM as the San Diego company does about itself. "ecoATM is unique because their value proposition is relevant to almost everyone and because they don't ask their customers for money; they pay money to their customers," Marshall explains. "ecoATM (also) has an overarching public benefit by helping save our environment from tons of eWaste."

What do you think about ecoATM and its new eCycling Station?

Sources: MarketWire and DEMO