Recycling your old phone is a very simple process allowing you to help the environment, reduce waste, make some extra money for yourself or donate the proceeds of your old phone to charities.

Many phone recycling companies now offer the option of donating proceeds from selling your old phone to charity. There are a number of recycling companies you can choose from, though we do not directy accept phones, we can offer some information on how you shoudl go about this.

Economic Considerations

Even if you plan on donating the proceeeds of your phone to charity it is still worth comparing prices from different mobile phone recyclers in order to get the best price, because, just as you would like the best price possible for your old phone, so will the charity you are donating to!

Security Issues

The best way to recycle an old phone is not to break it down for scrap, but to sell it as a working device to another customer / user, which will be the first option taken by any recycling company as this is the most profitable use of an old handset.

We will cover the environmental benefits of this further down the page, however, for now we will focus on the security issues this presents.

In a nutshell, any data left on your old phone could be accessed by the next person that uses it!

Once this data was primarily to confined to phonebook entries, but with the increase in use of smartphones capable of running “apps” the threat is a lot more serious. Consider the consequences of giving someone a phone with data stored in the following apps:

• Email – an app with your mail account details stored could allow someone to retrieve passwords for many other sites and services you use, a complete nightmare!
• Facebook – access to your facebook profile
• Twitter
• Ebay – access to elements of your ebay profile
• Amazon

There are many more apps but these are the most common, it is easy to see at a glance (of the above) that the consequences of not clearing out your phones data can be very serious.

Steps you should take:

• Delete all phone book entries
• Delete all data from apps (to be sure data is removed)
• Uninstall the apps themselves
• Delete all documents, memos, images, video and any other files (after transferring them off your phone to a PC or onto your new phone)
• Have a good look at different areas of your phone to be sure all data has been deleted
• Remove your SIM Card which can also be used to store contacts etc
• Wipe any memory (flash) cards which are in the phone

Some recycling companies offer software that will delete data for you, though, how well this copes with apps and complexities of modern phones is an open issue.

Environmental Benefits

We all know that recycling is good for the environment, but recycling phones has proved particularly popular due to the fact that it is commercially profitable.

Most recycled phones are sent to developing markets. This means that even old phones which may seem to have little value can be resold for profit.

This also has a social benefit improving communication in communities that lack the infrastructure of a fixed line network, and do not have the financial resources to afford new handsets.

Reducing Contamination from Waste Phones

Cell or Mobile phones contain some pretty nasty substances. If incorrectly disposed of they can have an adverse affect on the environment, here are a couple of the more unpleasant facts associated with the failure to recycle or properly dispose of your old handset:

Nickel Cadmium batteries contain Cadmium which is highly toxic. The Cadmium contained in the battery of a single phone is enough to contaminate over half a million liters of water! Although modern batteries do not contain Cadmium, there is a good chance that any older phones you have may contain this substance, so it is important that you never simply throw your phone away where it may end up in landfil (contaminating water) or be incinerated.

Beryllium is highly toxic and can cause lung damage. Beryllium is particularly dangerous if incinerated as it gives off dioxins which can be inhaled (again, causing lung damage).

Brominated retardants are used in printed circuit boards and cases to reduce the risk of a device catching fire due to electrical faults. As well as being carcinogenic Brominated Retardents can damage the liver and nervous / immune systems.

Lead – a heavy metal widely known to be toxic. Lead can cause damage to the nervous system as well as the immune system, particularly in children. Again, this is not something that should be allowed to escape into the wider environment.

So, there are a range of dangerous toxins contained in old phones which can cause damage to both health and the environment in different ways. Some by polluting water if they are sent to landfil, others are dangerous if incinnerated, so, there is no single safe way to dispose of an old phone, instead, phones must be broken down, re-usable elements recovered and dangerous ones disposed off properly.

Valuable Elements found in Phones

The good news for recyclers is that phones do not only contain dangerous comp0unds and elements, but some very valuable ones too. Gold, silver and platinum can all be found in mobile phones, being used for connectors, as condicutors etc.

Even lead which was mentioned earlier as a toxin is commercially valuable and can be recovered and re-used.

One interesting fact about old phones is that they contain more gold by weight than gold ore itself!

Re-Use Is Always Best

Of course, as mentioned, the best possible user of an old phone is to give it to someone that needs it. Not only is this the most profitable use (as it can be sold to its new owner) but it is environmentally better too. In essence, every phone re-used is one less phone that needs to be produced.

Beyond the use of toxins in phones, the other environmental consideration is the carbon footprint associated with producing them. They use plastics which of course are derived from oil, a range of other products and minerals which have to be mined, processed and shipped around the world. Then there are the energy costs associaded with actual production of the phone, before finally packaging and shipping the phone out to the customer.

All of that (except shipping) can be reduced if an old phone is recycled, and, as already mentioned, providing cheap alternatives to new phones can make a big difference to people in developing countries who struggle to afford new devices.

How Phone Recycling Works

Recycling your old phone could not be simpler. Spend a little time looking at some of the recycling companies out there to find the best price.

If you want to give the proceeds of your old phone sale to a charity then you will have to check that the company chosen offers “charity” as a payment option.

Once you have found the company you wish to use, you will find in almost all cases that after agreeing a price for your phone (usually automatic on most recyclers sites as they know the price for a given handset depending on its condition) they will send you a pre-paid envelope or sealable back to your address. All you have to do then is put your phone in the bag and send it back to them in the post.

Once the recycler has checked your phone is as described (correct model and condition with accessories / box etc if supplied) they will send payment to you.

If you have opted to keep the money yourself, this will be credited to your account, or send via PayPal or bankers cheque depending on the recyclers options and your selection of payment method.

If the money is donated to charity you should see some form of receipt for this so you know the money has gone to the cause of your choice.

Usually charities you can donate to are limited to the recyclers selection, though some use third party “giving” sites that allow donations to be made to a wider range of charities. Failing this, you can always ask for the cash and subsequently give that to charity yourself.

In Summary

There are many many good reasons to sell your mobile, and not one good reason not to. If nothing else, think of the money you can make by selling your old phone, that at least should be motivation even if you do not care about the other issues raised, on top of which, recycling your old phone is so very very easy!