Old cell phones (Score 2)

At a Thanksgiving Dinner with my extended family, my brilliant uncle from California informed all of us that we should never throw out unused cell phones because whether they are activated or not, they can always be used to place 911 calls. He's often coming up with these tidbits and has always been right in the past, so I believe it. He said it was federal law and suggested donating them to old or disabled people for that use. We did not talk about specific organizations that would take the donations.