Motorola today announced the "Race to Recycle", a first-of-its-kind fund-raising effort by a leading mobile-phone manufacturer to connect community involvement, classroom experience, and environmental awareness. The core objective of the Race to Recycle is to help schools raise money for scholastic and extra-curricular activities. Any accredited K-12 school in the United States is eligible to earn cash by collecting mobile phones that people no longer use.

Motorola will accept mobile phones made by any manufacturer – as long as the handsets are physically intact. Around the world, more than 1.7 billion people use mobile phones as their primary means of communication – and every second of every day about 23 new mobile handsets roll off the world’s assembly lines. As a result, mobile phones have become as ubiquitous as newspapers – a traditional target for school recycling drives – but mobile handsets are easier for students to collect and recycle. And, at $3 per in-tact handset collected, the payback from Motorola is compelling as well.

Schools participating in the Race to Recycle will receive $3.00 per intact phone – earning a maximum of $21,000 per calendar year, which would require the collection of 7,000 intact mobile phones. Additionally, Motorola is developing a multi-grade educational component for teachers to use in the classroom – enabling teachers to combine theory and application for a complete educational experience.

The Race to Recycle’s finish line target is the collection of 1,000,000 mobile phones by the end of the 2004-2005 school year. Schools wanting to get involved can get started by visiting the website  to register their school and get specifics about program guidelines.

In addition to the Race to Recycle, Motorola makes it easy for consumers to recycle mobile phones that they no longer use. The following two options are provided at no cost to consumers:

1. Pre-paid postage packets, which will be included with many of Motorola's new mobile-phone models. Consumers simply insert their old mobile phone in the provided packet and drop it in the mail. The mobile phone is sent directly to Motorola for recycling. 
2. Printable pre-paid postage shipping labels, which are available at their website . By affixing the label to a packet or box, consumers can ship back their unwanted mobile phones (up to 70 pounds) to be recycled.

A portion of proceeds from both of these methods goes back to the schools participating in the Race to Recycle.

Visit the website at

www.motorola.com/racetorecycle