This is an awesome idea only I’m not sure how the heck it works. A company named ecoATM has invented what they call Automatec eCycling Stations which evaluate your consumer electronic device and pay you money to recycle them. Somehow this thing is completely automated and the “How It Works” page features only 3 steps: (1) Insert device, (2) It determines value, (3) You get money.

Apparently the ecoATM can determine if there has been water damage but I’m guessing this machine can be easily tricked or simply guess the wrong device. Why? Because I’m a pessimistic skeptic and this thing seems too awesome for real life. Forget eBay – I’ll start buying your used crap just to put it inside this machine!

The company issued a Press Release which I found in PDF form and (mostly) transcribed for your convenience below:

ecoATM today announced that it has installed its first Automated eCycling Station for eWaste recycling take-back programs and trade-in promotions. The installation at Nebraska Furniture Mart in Omaha on September 21, 2009, has proven to be an imediate success, both in the number of recycled devices and the resulting trade-up purchases. By automating the buy-back and payment process, the system offers financial incentives to consumers for all used mobile phone models and will soon support other consumer electronics, regardless of their condition.

“The ecoATM makes it easy and convenient for our customers to trade-in and recycle their used mobile phones,” said Jay Buchanan, Electronics Division Director, Nebraska Furniture Mart, Inc., America’s Largest Home Furnishings Store. “This benefits both our customers and the environment.”

“We are extremely pleased with the initial results and consumers’ delight with the system,” said Marke Bowles, CEO, ecoATM Inc. “ecoATM’s solution finally makes it easy for consumers to give their used phones a second life or to recycle them. Over 100 million used, but still valuable phones, are quietly retired to closets and drawers each year in the US where they decay into zero value and then enter our landfills years later. Our automated ecoATM provides consumers and retailers an easy, convenient, incentivized method to convert those devices into real money instead of toxic waste.”

“Consumer electronics retailers and their OEM partners are facing a complex and growing set of state and municipal eWaste laws. Consumer convenience is important to solving the eWaste problem in the US, and trade-in/trade-up incentive programs are proving to be quite effective in retail,” said Leslie Hand, Research Director, IDC Retail Insights.

San Diego’s CONNECT organization also sannounced this week that ecoATM was a Most Innovative New Product (MIP) Awards finalist. The CONNECT MIP Awards are San Diego’s “Oscars” for regional innovation. The winners will be announced in December.

ecoATM will launch additional eCycling Stations with several more national retailers over the next quarter in San Diego, Boston, Dallas and Seattle.

I hope they win that award in December and I think we’ll be seeing these things pop up all over the United States if they work as advertised. Huge need, awesome concept and a winning proposition for every single person involved (company, retailer, consumer, environment).