Think Green When You Replace Your Mobile

How often have you opened a drawer or cupboard, and found an old mobile phone?  If this is relatable, then why not consider making a change and recycling rather than just binning it or putting it away to gather more dust.  Did you know that 80% of the materials that make up your phone can be recycled and used again? 

What to do with your phone before you recycle

Our phones contain a lot of personal data about us such as contact numbers, photographs/videos.  Additionally, you could have saved passwords to social media sites, banks, and logins to favourite retail sites.  This is not the sort of data you want to get into the wrong hands!

It is probably worth downloading to your computer all personal content such as images or music which you wish to keep or at the very least saving it to your SIM card that way you will have it for future reference. 

Once you have saved all you need be sure to return your phone to factory settings.  This can be found in the Settings part of your mobile phone and depending on the make or model will either be labelled; Erase all Content and Settings, Factory Reset or Erase all Data.  By doing this you will delete all downloaded Apps and remove all your personal data.

Finally, ensure you remove your SIM and SD card from your old phone and it is now ready to be recycled.

Ways in which to recycling your old mobile

Electrical Recycling:  Your local council tip will have an area for recycling of electrical items, where they will extract the materials that can be recycled and appropriately dispose of the elements that can’t be.

Charity Shops:  You will find that some charity shops will accept old mobiles irrespective of condition as they will have them refurbished or will recycle them if they feel they are beyond restoration.  By doing this you can also help support your chosen charity.

Phone Providers:  Many of the phone providers such as O2, Tesco Mobile and Three have a donation service whereby you can donate your mobile.  They will either distribute them to people that need them or recycle and put money back into their supported charities.  Therefore, worth speaking with your provider when upgrading your mobile.

Trade-in Sites:  There are many trade-in sites, but you have probably seen the adverts for sites such as Music Magpie and Mazuma Mobile; these sites grade the condition of your phone and then offer you a trade-in price.

Selling Sites:  Some of the old 1980’s ‘brick size’ phones, along with older Nokia’s are now fetching big sums as they are collectables, but it may not stay this way for long as these trends come and go quickly!

So next time you replace your mobile phone, don’t shove the old one in a drawer, think about how you could recycle instead.