ŠiStockphoto.com/Birgitte Magnus
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Back in the day, concert-goers used to hold up cigarette lighters during a favorite song.
These days, you'll also see cell phones glowing up high, as people pay respect to the song and snap a picture, shoot a video or leave a "wish you were here" message on an answering machine.
The average cell phone only lasts 18 months, though, so they can pile up quickly in landfills. Some tired phones likely land in the trash cans at concerts.
But some artists have become hip to this problem, and are accepting cell phones for recycling at their concerts.
They're doing it at the Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival this weekend (Aug. 28-30) in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, with help from Rock the Earth, according to Earth911.
The Rock the Earth people also have set up cell phone recycling at concerts for the Allman Brothers Band and Widespread Panic.
Outside Lands features Pearl Jam, Dave Matthews Band and Tenacious D.
The cell phone re-use effort is part of an Eco Lands section at the festival, which includes a solar-powered cell phone charging station, and a passport program where concert-goers can get stamps for biking, taking public transit to the festival or recycling that old cell phone --- and be entered into a drawing to watch a concert from the soundboard.
And if you still want to send a text message or video to a friend who's missing the show (and you have an AT&T Mobile device), you can use a service from ReliOn that's powered by hydrogen fuel cells.
More on Recycling:
Top Recycling Tips
Recycling: By the Numbers
How to Go Green: Gadgets
