I’ve told many people about Call to Protect run by The Wireless Foundation, which takes donated phones and reprograms them for victims of domestic violence to use. SF Chronicle writer Henry Norr draws our attention to a different program that takes old cell phones, donates a few dollars to a designated charity, uses a disabled worker program to refurbish or recycle them, and sells working ones to cell phone carriers in Latin America and the Caribbean. It’s actually a for-profit operation, but they say their goal is to protect the environment and be socially responsible. So if you don’t mind someone making a few bucks off your donated phone down the line, it’s not a bad way to keep it out of the landfill. The company president, biased of course, actually thinks that The Wireless Foundation is duping people. The foundation has collected 1.4 million phones, given 48,677 to the domestive violence cause, recycled 30%, and sold the rest to cover costs. Any proceeds are split between the foundation and charity. If you don’t like either of these options, consider giving your old phone to a relative or friend to keep in their car for calling 911 in emergencies.