The University of Texas at Arlington in the United States are having to install new bins for the purposes of cell phone recycling after suspicions were raised that people may be stealing used cell phones from the old boxes. The Sustainability Office at the university is replacing the five bins previously used for the collection of old cell phones for recycling purposes with six new style bins that will have better security and be more difficult to break into.

They say you have to be stupid to be a criminal, and one hapless burglar in York County in the United States may just have proved the point. Northern York County Regional Police were able to catch the man who broke into a home in Sunnyside Road in Jackson Township during broad daylight and stole four electronic items because he accidentally dropped his own cell phone and left it at the scene of the crime. With a search warrant, the police were then able to trace the cell phone right back to its twenty-two year old owner, a man named Keenan Michael Pleasant.

A renowned golf analyst found himself being asked to leave a Masters tournament last Thursday after breaking the rules by using a cell phone. Charlie Rymer, a golf analyst for the Westwood One radio network, was ejected from the private, men only Augusta National Golf Club in the United States by a security guard after he was spotted using a cell phone outside of the designated media area during the first round of the Masters tournament.

Would you trust the government with your cell phone number? The residents of Ravali County in the United States certainly do not. Authorities in the area have found that out the hard way after attempting to persuade citizens to give their cell phone numbers to government officials. This is in order to be able to receive notifications of emergencies in a form of ‘reverse 911’ scheme, only to find the great majority of people do not trust them enough to give them their phone number.

An event held at the Illinois State Fairgrounds at the weekend to allow the general public to hand in their old cell phones and other electrical equipment for recycling was a big success by any standards, ultimately filling up seven semi-tractor trailers. The event, which took place at the Orr Building on Saturday, was staged by the Sangamon County Health Department as a way for people to dispose of their used cell phones and other unwanted electrical goods free of charge and in an environmentally responsible manner.

While the new statewide law in the US, which forces manufacturers to accept the responsibility for the recycling of old cell phones and other electrical items, may have caught some places on the hop when it became official on the first of this month, Clinton County is not one of them. The area has been a pioneer in the field for several years already.

According to an article in Australia’s The Daily Star, the government over there is poised to ban the use of cell phones in classrooms. Not because the students are abusing their cells, but because the teachers are.

Residents of New York in the United States are lining up to take advantage of the new laws, which make it free to hand over old cell phones and other electrical goods for recycling. The free electronic recycling program went into effect all over the state of New York from the beginning of this month and consumers are more than happy to take advantage of it, especially given that they were formerly charged between five to ten US dollars per item they wanted to dispose of in a more environmentally friendly manner.

Kansas State University in the United States will be holding an event for the recycling of old cell phones and other electrical goods. The event, which will be staged at K-State later this month, came about after the college teamed up with PSC Environmental Inc, which is an environmental services company that services the whole of the United States. PSC Environmental Inc has helped with similar events at other universities in the past, but this is the first time that K-State has become involved. The event will take almost all forms of electrical equipment, from used cell phones to televisions, computers, printers and so on.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the United States wants tighter regulations on cell phone signal boosters following concern that they could interfere with carrier networks. Rather than going for an outright ban on boosters, the FCC is instead looking to tighten guidelines on them so that they can be used both effectively and safely without endangering carrier networks.