With Earth Day having thrown the spotlight on being ‘green’, more and more people are getting into the recycling of electronic waste, including old cell phones.

The recycling of old cell phones has raised more than a million dollars for a children’s hospital in New Zealand. In the last two years, more than 270,000 used cell phones have been handed in for recycling with the Starship Mobile Phone Appeal, raising over a million dollars for the Starship Children’s Hospital.

Drivers who are caught using a cell phone by police while operating a motor vehicle are facing stiffer fines than before after a new bill was approved by the California Senate in the United States. The bill, which will now head to the Assembly, will see fines be raised from 208 to 328 dollars for a first offence, to 528 for a repeat offender.

California State University in Northridge in the United States is staging a cell phone recycling event tomorrow to coincide with Earth Day. The event, which will be held in CSUN parking lot G10 (Lassen and Zelzah), will accept old cell phones and any other electronic items that people wish to donate for recycling including ink cartridges, televisions, computers, MP3 players and fluorescent bulbs.

The University of San Diego has officially opened its recycling facility for old cell phones and other forms of electronic waste. The facility opens on the same week as the international Earth Day event, with a press release from the university noting that “Every day is Earth Day at USD” and that the facility is just one sign of their commitment to sustainability and conservation.

China is one of the worst countries in the world for cell phone recycling, according to a new report from the Beijing Morning Post. Less than one per cent of old cell phones are recycled in the country according to the newspaper, despite the average Chinese citizen changing their cell phone once every 15 months.

The primary authorized retailer of cell phones on the internet, Wirefly, is calling on customers to support Earth Day by handing in their old cell phones and other unwanted electronic gadgets for recycling. Those who do hand over their used cell phones and other forms of electrical waste to the company for recycling will receive either cash or a donation to any of more than a dozen eligible charities (such as the American Red Cross and the Susan G Komen Breast Cancer Foundation) as a reward for their environmentally responsible behavior.

Canadians are being called upon to donate their old cell phones for recycling as part of Earth Week 2011. The campaign is being spearheaded by the country’s cell phone recycling program, Recycle My Cell, which is available to all citizens completely free of charge. Recycle My Cell has a website available in two languages – English at RecycleMyCell.ca and French at recyclemoncell.ca – where customers can find the drop off location nearest to them just by entering their zip code. If they are for some reason unable to reach one of the 3500 drop-off points located across the country, the site also offers printable postage paid labels, to allow people to mail their used cell phones in to be recycled instead.

Big Key Self Storage, which is located in Miami in the United States, has signed up to become a part of the Cell Phones for Soldiers scheme. The Cell Phones for Soldiers scheme turns old cell phones into pre-paid cards for soldiers who are serving overseas, enabling them to have communication with their loved ones back home. Big Key Self Storage will accept almost any and all forms of electronic waste, including cassette recorders, typewriters, computers, CDs and DVDs, pagers, fax machines and various other electrical items, although only used cell phones will be able to help the soldiers and they are not currently accepting televisions.