Monmouth recycles cell phones to fight violence

BY CRAIG CROSBY
Staff Writer

09/24/2008

MONMOUTH -- An idea to improve the town's cell-phone recycling policy is helping provide a little extra safety to victims of domestic violence in central Maine.

For the past month, residents looking to unload their old cell phones have been dropping them in a secured mailbox at the town's transfer station. The collected phones are then donated to the Family Violence Project in Augusta, which uses the phones as a fundraiser or to provide a measure of safety to those in violent relationships throughout Kennebec and Somerset counties.

About 50 cell phones have been turned in at the town's transfer station since the program began on Aug. 20, Monmouth Police officer Evan Franklin said.

"I've very pleased at how the town's people have responded to it in the number of phones we've gotten and the quality of phone we've gotten," Franklin said. "We've gotten some very high quality phones."

The useless phones are valuable to the Family Violence Project, said the program's Jaime Gradie. Phones in poor condition are given to The Shelter Alliance, a Florida organization that pays money for the phones and refurbishes them for reuse.

Many phones donated to the Family Violence Project are given to those who seek help from the program as a means for contacting police in an emergency. Even cell phones that are not connected to a service plan can be used to call 9-1-1.

The Family Violence Project has collected at least 1,000 cell phones since it started its program in 2006, and at least 200 of those have been given out in central Maine, Gradie said.

"We assume everyone has a cell phone, but that's not always the case," she said. "When you're safety planning with a person, you're really trying to make a lot of pieces come together to increase that person's safety. It's at least another chance at being able to reach out (for help)."

Monmouth's cell phone recycling program began when Franklin decided to get rid of his stockpile of unused phones. The town had been sending the phones out of state for recycling but Franklin, who was a conservation law major at Unity College, came up with a plan to act locally.

"I thought there was a more community-based way to recycle our old cell phones," he said. "I figured it might be a good way to clean out some people's drawers."

Franklin developed the proposal and, with the help of the public-works department's Herb Whittier, put together a sign explaining the project and a secure mailbox to hold the donated phones.

"We don't have any plans to take that down," Monmouth Police Chief Robert Annese said. "I think there's always going to be a need."

Monmouth police have delivered more phones to the Family Violence Project every week since the collection box was set up.

"We're really excited about that," Gradie said. "We're hoping other towns will do similar things."

Annese supported Franklin's proposal from the beginning, but he never imagined the program would be as successful as it has been.

It has made him proud of his officers and his town.

"The community has gotten behind it and it's really taking off," Annese said.

"The response has been overwhelming," he said.