A demo of the ecoATM (Photo from Mashable)

What’s it going to take for you to recycle your old electronic devices, instead of just throwing it away where it will cause much damage to the environment?

Cash, you say?

A start-up company from San Diego has heeded the age-old call of the cash incentive to get consumers to recycle used electronic gadgets and devices.

To make it even more interesting, they’ve done it in a way where every transaction is done without the need for any human interaction.

The ecoATM is fashioned after a regular banks’ automated machine, except this time instead of an ATM card, one needs used MP3 players, old cell phones, once-played video games or empty ink cartridges to ‘withdraw’ money from the machine.

The machine itself is programmed to determine the type of product consumers pop in, estimate the resale value of the gadget while also factoring any damages that it has acquired through years of use.

In the end, users are supposed to get a fair price for their device, no hassles, as opposed to when they try to sell it themselves on eBay or in their local flea market.

As a precautionary measure, the user is also asked to leave identification before they can receive payment. This ensures that the gadget is not stolen goods.

It also wipes out any information you may have left in your old cell phone so you can be assured that by the time the company resells the gadget, there should be virtually no traces of the former user in the device.

Unfortunately, at the moment, the machine only takes on handheld gadgets and devices so if you’re looking to let go of an old TV, PC or laptop, you’re going to have to go the old-fashioned route and sell it in an online marketplace or stage your own garage sale.

So far the machines are all strategically placed in different parts of San Diego, but with $14 million in new funding, the founders of ecoATM are hoping to place more machines in more parts of the country.

Source: Mashable