How to Recycle Your Old Smartphone
With the holidays right around the corner and the release of new iPhone Xs and Xr; you might be upgrading your phone soon if you haven’t already.
Whether you are planning on upgrading or if you have already upgraded one question remains; what do you do with your old phone?
While it can be tempting to put it in a drawer to sit for years or to throw it away, you can recycle cell phones.
Not properly disposing of old phones can cause chemicals to leach into water sources near landfills due to the heavy metals used in smartphones.
Let’s take a look at how you can responsibly get rid of your old smartphone.
First, You Need To Wipe Your Phone
Before taking your old smartphone anywhere, you want to make sure that all of your information and data have been removed from the phone. To do this, we are going to want to wipe all of the data from the smartphone.
You want to make sure to back up and take any files that you still want off of the device. Once you have completed the deletion process, you can’t recover any of your data. It is always good to double check to make sure you don’t lose something valuable.
Erasing the content on your phone is pretty simple whether you use an iPhone or Android smartphone.
On iPhones, head to: Settings > General > Reset > Erase all Content and Settings
On Android phones, head to: Settings > System > Reset (or Backup & Reset) > Factory Data Reset > Reset Phone > Erase Everything
Where to Recycle Your Phone
As we mentioned earlier in this article, properly disposing of your smartphone can prevent chemicals from leaking into water supplies near landfills. Properly disposing of your smartphone is essential for reducing contamination.
Best Buy
Major retailers and electronics stores will often run their device recycling programs to ensure that devices stay out of landfills. Best Buy runs the largest retail e-waste programs and has helped responsible dispose of 1.5 billion pounds of e-waste, and there is no charge for most items.
You can take your device to your nearest best buy where they will let you know if your device has any trade-in value. If it does, you will receive the amount, and if it doesn’t, you can still recycle it for free.
EcoATM
EcoATM is on a mission to make electronic recycling devices more convenient and reduce the amount of e-waste that ends up in landfills.
You can find an EcoATM location near you, take your device, and drop it off. You need to follow the on-screen directions and you are done. If your device has any trade-in value, you will receive a payout from the ATM.
Local Recycling Centers
Many local municipal recycling centers have electronics recycling programs or provide resources for finding a place to dispose of electronics properly. You can use Earth911’s Recycling Database to find a drop off location near you.
Conclusion
Every day over 350,000 cell phones are disposed of with over 80% estimated not to get recycled. It is up to each of us to properly dispose of our old cellphones once we get a new one.
By visiting a local recycling center, finding and EcoATM near you, or visiting your nearest Best Buy, you can properly dispose of your old smartphones.