David Edmondson wants to develop the equivalent of a Good Housekeeping Seal for refurbished cell phones.

The former CEO of RadioShack and current CEO of eRecyclingCorps, a cell phone refurbishing company, has helped form the Device Renewal Forum, aimed at developing a process to standardize the renewal of cell phones around the world.

"We want consumers and operators to be able to buy these devices with a sense of confidence that they have been remanufactured in a way that they are going to be as reliable as a new device," Edmondson said. "That grows the market for renewed devices, which ca...