The Mount Prospect Public Library Foundation Looks out for the Environment through a Fundraising Opportunity

Protect the Environment! Donate your old cell phones and ink-jet cartridges at the Mount Prospect Public Library. Arsenic, Cadmium, Lead…these highly toxic substances can leach into the soil and groundwater from landfills flooded with discarded cell phones. In fact, an estimated 130 million cell phones were “retired” in 2005, with many of them ending up in our nation’s landfills. Did you know that over 65 million cell phones are already stockpiled in U.S. households?  Are you one of those people hanging on to an old cell phone? Don’t throw them away; donate them to the Mount Prospect Public Library Foundation. The Foundation has partnered with EcoPhones to raise funds by recycling old cell phones. It’s very simple. Bring your old cell phones (working or not) and your cell phone’s batteries (but not the chargers) to the Mount Prospect Public Library and drop them in the collection box near the Registration Desk. 

Those used ink-jet cartridges don’t belong in landfills, either. Over half of today’s consumers throw their empty printer cartridges into the garbage. Those cartridges add more than 40 million pounds of unnecessary waste to our nation’s landfills and take more than 1,000 years to decompose. The Foundation has also made arrangements to recycle ink-jet cartridges and turn them into funds to support the Library’s efforts. Please, bring any used ink-jet cartridges (they must fit in the palm of your hand) to the collection box to be recycled. Your support for the Library Foundation allows the Library to continue to provide exciting programs and services not possible through public funding. You can make a difference.