From time to time readers of this blog email me with questions about something related to living green and for which they do not have the answer. They always say how approachable I seem in my blog and that they figured it would be OK to write and ask for my advice. I love that people feel comfortable enough to do that, and I welcome questions anytime.

Most recently here’s what a reader wrote to ask:

“My cordless phone is dying and has terrible battery life. My fiancé and I agree that the time has come to upgrade our phone. Now, the question becomes what to do with the old phone. We only have a need for a single phone (1 phone jack). The old phone would probably work all right if the battery was replaced so we want to donate it, or at the very least, recycle it. Through earth911.org we found out that Staples recycles electronics, but when we called the store, they said they don’t recycle phones, and don’t donate them. Do you know where I can donate or recycle a phone? “

I thought that finding the definitive answer to this question was going to be a snap, but it turned out to be nearly impossible. That’s because many companies have jumped on the green bandwagon to recycle cellular phones but not so much the cordless, portable phones that people use with landlines. I was able to find out a few things that might help this reader with her dilemma.

Roxanne Smith, a spokesperson with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), recommends checking with your municipality about whether or not they can accept regular phones in recycling. “Each municipality is different in what it accepts for recycling purposes,” she says. If the municipality or the waste company you contract with for recycling services can’t help you, ask if they can guide you to an e-waste recycler nearby.

Mark Caserta, owner of 3R Living, could help you if you were looking to recycle “cell phones, ink cartridges, batteries, small electronics (handhelds), laptops, CD’s, Cassettes, DVD’s, VHS Tapes, etc.” However, he can’t help with regular phones. The e-recycler he uses, called Green Disk, says that they figure that most recyclers won’t take old-fashioned phones “because of the quality of plastic that regular phones are made of, or that the electronics [inside the phone] may not be as valuable [as cellphones].” Therefore, it’s just not worth the recycler’s while.

This seems to be the case with this e-waste recycler I found, which lists what kinds of electronics they’ll take off your hands for recycling. Unfortunately, cordless phones don’t appear on that list (though this company seems to sell refurbished ones. Go figure).

If all else fails and you can’t recycle your phone, you might want to put it up for grabs on Freecycle or Craigslist so someone can reuse it. Who knows what people will take for free? Or, you might want to give your local high school or regional theater a call to see if they could use some donated props, in the form of your now-non-working portable phone.

Stay tuned for more reader questions.