Rock the Earth Wants Your Cell

Are you going to check out M.I.A., Pearl Jam, the Black Eyed Peas and the rest of acts at this weekend's Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival? If so, now is the perfect time to recycle that old cell phone of yours.

Rock the Earth, an environmental organization out of Denver, will be on hand at the San Francisco music fest to run a cell phone recycling program in partnership with Musictoday, Collective Good and Gibson. It will be part of the festival's Eco Lands Passport, where fans can earn "green stamps" by engaging in pro-environment activities. The program offers attendees the chance to watch headliners like Dave Matthews Band, Tenacious D and Pearl Jam from the actual soundboard. You also get stamps for taking your bike or public transit to the event, registering to vote, volunteering, and, of course, for recycling your cell phone. People who bring their phone to the Rock the Earth booth will also receive a 20 percent off coupon for a future Musictoday purchase and enter a drawing to win CDs, DVDs, festival merch or even a Gibson guitar.

"Outside Lands is excited to have partnered with Rock the Earth to handle our cell phone recycling program at the festival," said festival producer Bryan Duquette in a statement. "It's important to educate concert goers on the harmful effects cell phones have on the environment when not disposed of properly."

Hundreds of millions of cell phones are purchased each year, but only 1 percent are ever recycled. Unfortunately, phones contain toxic substances like lead, mercury and arsenic, which make it essential that they are recycled and not simply tossed in the trash. This is one of the issues that Rock the Earth hopes to make better known.

MIA photo courtesy of Janette Beckman.