SAN DIEGO, Dec. 10, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- The most wonderful
time of the year can often be one of the most wasteful as well.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA)1, household waste increases more than 25 percent
from Thanksgiving to New Year's Day. Despite all the excess, almost
three quarters of Americans (74 percent) plan to do something this
season to reduce their waste, according to a survey from ecoATM,
the nationwide network of device recycling kiosks. In addition to
not wrapping gifts and reusing wrapping paper, gift bags and
ribbons from previous holidays, 17 percent plan to use newspaper or
other recycled paper to wrap gifts.
Some truly take these waste-cutting measures to heart, with
eight percent of respondents not planning to fill any bags of trash
with holiday excess: wrapping paper, ribbon, gift bags and product
packaging. Nineteen percent are on the opposite end of the spectrum
– saying they fill four or more bags, contributing to the
additional one million tons of waste a week in U.S. landfills
during the holidays, as reported by the EPA.
In addition to gift wrapping and ribbon waste, the holidays can
also be a time when e-waste increases as many consumers unwrap new
gadgets. According to the National Retail Federation2,
30 percent of consumers plan to buy electronic items as gifts this
holiday, adding to the growing number of discarded devices.
"ecoATM is a solution for e-waste this holiday season and into
the new year," said Maria Stipp,
president of ecoATM. "After opening new gadgets this holiday,
consumers can bring their old gadgets to an ecoATM kiosk for
instant cash, and the assurance that hazardous materials will not
end up in landfills."
ecoATM has collected more than three million devices (tablets,
MP3 players and cell phones) since 2010, and is able to find a
second life for the majority of those devices. For the remaining
devices, ecoATM partners with certified eWaste reclamation
facilities to ensure those materials are responsibly reused and
recycled.
For more information and locations, please visit
http://www.ecoatm.com/.
Methodology: The research was conducted within the
U.S. by independent market research company Edelman Berland on behalf of ecoATM from
November 7-10, 2014, among 1,000
consumers age 18 or older. The margin of error for the audience is
+3.1% at the 95% confidence level.
About ecoATM
ecoATM, an Outerwall Inc. (Nasdaq: OUTR) brand, is the first
company to create an automated self-serve kiosk system to buy back
old phones, tablets or MP3 players for cash. ecoATM uses patented,
advanced machine vision, electronic diagnostics, and artificial
intelligence to evaluate electronics. ecoATM's eCycling
stations provide a convenient trade-in solution with features that
validate sellers' identities and deter the sale of stolen phones,
and the company collaborates with national, state, and local
law-enforcement groups in combating mobile phone theft through
innovative use of technology and
education (http://www.ecoatm.com/law-enforcement/).
ecoATM holds Responsible Recycling (R2) and ISO14001
certification, confirming the company's commitment to maintaining
the highest standards of electronics recycling, as well as ISO27001
certification for information and personal data security. See
http://www.ecoatm.com/how-it-works/ for a video of how an ecoATM
kiosk works. For more information, visit www.ecoatm.com and
for more information about Outerwall Inc. please visit
www.outerwall.com.
About Outerwall Inc.
Outerwall Inc. (Nasdaq: OUTR) has more than 20 years of
experience creating some of the most profitable spaces for their
retail partners. The company mission is to create a better everyday
by delivering breakthrough kiosk experiences that delight consumers
and generate revenue for retailers. As the company that brought
consumers Redbox® entertainment, Coinstar®
money services, and ecoATM® electronics recycling
kiosks, Outerwall is leading the next generation of automated
retail and paving the way for inventive, scalable businesses.
Outerwall™ kiosks are in neighborhood grocery stores, drug stores,
mass merchants, malls, and other retail locations in the United States, Canada, Puerto
Rico, the United Kingdom,
and Ireland. Learn more at
www.outerwall.com.
1 Source: United States Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA), "Reduce, Recycle, Reuse: Greening the Season"
2 Source: National Retail Federation, Holiday
Consumer Spending Survey, Nov. 12,
2014
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SOURCE ecoATM