Cell phone companies encourage electronic waste

I think the mobile or cell phone industry encourages people to discard their phones. We tried to purchase an additional phone for my mother at the beginning of the year because she was one of the people that we phoned lot and we wanted to save long distance charges and add her to our family plan. We were with Cellular One which was purchased by AT&T. At the former Cellular One stores were told that they didn't have anymore phones that would be compatible with our old Cellular One phones and that we had to purchase ALL new AT&T phones for the whole family. (We had three: my husband, myself and my daughter.)

We I asked about the electronic waste this would cause, I was told that the phone would be donated to soldiers. Okay.....so if the phone will work for the soldiers.....why can't they continue to work for us?

Every former Cellular One store we went to was "all out" of the old Cellular One phones and tried to sell us a new AT&T phone for the whole family.

Can someone explain to me why it was impossible to purchase a phone that would be compatible with the three phones we already had?

Discarded Mobile Phones Create an