An iPhone App To Help Teens Locate Recycling Centers? Yes, AT&T Has An App For That

In a world of Angry Birds and Foursquare, I’m not sure how AT&T came up with this one.
This week, AT&T unleashed the Eco-App, a youth-centric iPhone app that tries to promote sustainability through education. It’s hard to argue with a such a legitimate, noble goal but the app itself is a bit of a head scratcher.

As explained on AT&T’s website, the Eco-App has two top features: a tool to help teens find nearby recycling centers and educational resources to help teens comprehend the “environmental benefits of paperless billing.”

File this under the increasingly expanding folder of “What was AT&T Thinking?

Eco-app is part of AT&T’s “One Million Eco Challenge,” a broader initiative to raise environmental awareness among kids and teens. To be fair, the app includes useful information, like tips about local environmental events but it just seems awkwardly out of touch, like the cliche reindeer sweaters grandmothers push on unsuspecting teens.  I have full faith that a large fraction of America’s youth is interested in environmental issues, we’ll just have to find a better way to reach out to them— beyond paperless billing.