Tis the Season to Cut Back on Waste: 20 Percent of Americans Will Forgo Wrapping Holiday Gifts

SAN DIEGO, Dec. 10, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- The most wonderful time of the year can often be one of the most wasteful as well. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)¹, household waste increases more than 25 percent from Thanksgiving to New Year's Day. Despite all the excess, almost three quarters of Americans (74 percent) plan to do something this season to reduce their waste, according to a survey from ecoATM, the nationwide network of device recycling kiosks. In addition to not wrapping gifts and reusing wrapping paper, gift bags and ribbons from previous holidays, 17 percent plan to use newspaper or other recycled paper to wrap gifts.

Some truly take these waste-cutting measures to heart, with eight percent of respondents not planning to fill any bags of trash with holiday excess: wrapping paper, ribbon, gift bags and product packaging. Nineteen percent are on the opposite end of the spectrum – saying they fill four or more bags, contributing to the additional one million tons of waste a week in U.S. landfills during the holidays, as reported by the EPA.

In addition to gift wrapping and ribbon waste, the holidays can also be a time when e-waste increases as many consumers unwrap new gadgets. According to the National Retail Federation², 30 percent of consumers plan to buy electronic items as gifts this holiday, adding to the growing number of discarded devices.

"ecoATM is a solution for e-waste this holiday season and into the new year," said Maria Stipp, president of ecoATM. "After opening new gadgets this holiday, consumers can bring their old gadgets to an ecoATM kiosk for instant cash, and the assurance that hazardous materials will not end up in landfills."

ecoATM has collected more than three million devices (tablets, MP3 players and cell phones) since 2010, and is able to find a second life for the majority of those devices. For the remaining devices, ecoATM partners with certified eWaste reclamation facilities to ensure those materials are responsibly reused and recycled.

For more information and locations, please visit http://www.ecoatm.com/.

Methodology: The research was conducted within the U.S. by independent market research company Edelman Berland on behalf of ecoATM from November 7-10, 2014, among 1,000 consumers age 18 or older. The margin of error for the audience is +3.1% at the 95% confidence level.

About ecoATM

ecoATM, an Outerwall Inc. (Nasdaq: OUTR) brand, is the first company to create an automated self-serve kiosk system to buy back old phones, tablets or MP3 players for cash. ecoATM uses patented, advanced machine vision, electronic diagnostics, and artificial intelligence to evaluate electronics. ecoATM's eCycling stations provide a convenient trade-in solution with features that validate sellers' identities and deter the sale of stolen phones, and the company collaborates with national, state, and local law-enforcement groups in combating mobile phone theft through innovative use of technology and education (http://www.ecoatm.com/law-enforcement/).

ecoATM holds Responsible Recycling (R2) and ISO14001 certification, confirming the company's commitment to maintaining the highest standards of electronics recycling, as well as ISO27001 certification for information and personal data security.  See http://www.ecoatm.com/how-it-works/ for a video of how an ecoATM kiosk works.  For more information, visit www.ecoatm.com and for more information about Outerwall Inc. please visit www.outerwall.com.

About Outerwall Inc.

Outerwall Inc. (Nasdaq: OUTR) has more than 20 years of experience creating some of the most profitable spaces for their retail partners. The company mission is to create a better everyday by delivering breakthrough kiosk experiences that delight consumers and generate revenue for retailers. As the company that brought consumers Redbox^® entertainment, Coinstar^® money services, and ecoATM^® electronics recycling kiosks, Outerwall is leading the next generation of automated retail and paving the way for inventive, scalable businesses. Outerwall™ kiosks are in neighborhood grocery stores, drug stores, mass merchants, malls, and other retail locations in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, the United Kingdom, and Ireland. Learn more at www.outerwall.com.

¹ Source: United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), "Reduce, Recycle, Reuse: Greening the Season"

² Source: National Retail Federation, Holiday Consumer Spending Survey, Nov. 12, 2014

(Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20141210/163490)  

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SOURCE ecoATM

Related Links

http://www.ecoatm.com