The digital age brings with it many benefits. We now all have smartphones, dedicated personal computers that fit in our pockets. We’re the “always on, always connected” generation and we have access to vast quantities of data right at our fingertips.
However, with every new innovation and technological addition there are the inevitable pros and cons.
Our current love affair with the smartphone is creating environmental problems. As technology progresses, we upgrade our existing smartphones to newer and better ones. They increase our productivity and better our general experience using this technology – but what happens to our old smartphones?
If they don’t remain forever in the forgotten drawer at the back of the kitchen, they often they end up in a landfill – but sometimes we recycle them. Sometimes this means that we give (or sell) our old phones to a friend or family member – a fairly effective form of recycling. But for those of us who sent our old smartphones straight to the dustbin where they were ever-destined to clog up landfills the world over, there was definitely a better solution.
In the US alone, it’s estimated that mobile phones are updated every 18 months. That means that over 800 million are lurking in drawers, and 140 million are in landfills – and those phones are leaking toxic metals into our collective environment. This is a terrible arrangement and one that benefits no one – our resources are already strained in the first instance, and this neglect of toxic waste means that our fragile planet is further harmed.
Let’s consider some eco-friendly ways to recycle your smartphone.
Sell, Recycle, Reuse
Often we find ourselves upgrading our mobile phones because our contracts have expired. This doesn’t mean that the phone is in bad condition, but simply that we feel the need to upgrade to something better. Not everyone feels that way, however, and not everyone is quite so lucky.
So, consider recycling your old phone instead of losing it to a forgotten dresser drawer. Donate your smartphone to a charity, or, if you’re less charitable, sell it for cash. Whatever you do, do something productive and not wasteful with it. Your old smartphone is valuable, perhaps not to you, but to someone else.
Appstand
For many of us, our smartphones don’t quite last as long as we’d hope. That’s not always the case, however, and for those who have managed to hold on to their smartphone and keep it in working order then there’s another option for recycling.
Meet Appstand
, which is basically a digital picture frame that encases your phone that you can purchase. It turns your old iPhone 3 or 3GS into a dedicated screen for showing off photos or some lovely multimedia imagery. It allows you to breathe some life back into that aging piece of technology.
Apple will take it off your hands
For those of you with old iPhones there’s another option. You can get in touch with Apple and use its Reuse and Recycle program to turn your phone into a gift card. The amounts put on the gift card of course vary considerably depending on the phone’s make and model.
The Carphone Warehouse
The Carphone Warehouse has a trade-in service that provides a discount on your next smartphone. The amount varies, of course, but they have a helpful page that allows you to check the value of your particular phone.
The company will take phones that are damaged or even not working at all, and leave you free to spend the cash on anything you want – including, of course, a new phone contract. The Carphone Warehouse will pay you then and there directly into your bank account.
This service extends to tablets too and the company will take any phones –regardless of brand or working condition. The Carphone Warehouse also claims that it’s environmentally friendly – they recycle thousands of phones and tablets every month.
ERP-Batteries
The battery in a smartphone is very valuable. It contains precious metals and minerals, and, although each battery only contains a small amount, collectively it’s a substantial potential resource stream.
However, many of us don’t recycle our smartphones properly. That’s where a service like Call2Recycle in the US, or ERP-batteries in the UK, comes into its own. The company will recycle your battery ensuring that nothing is lost in the process and they make it very simple too. You can request a free collection from your home, or, if you’d rather, you can send the phone in the post yourself using the free collection box that ERP will provide.
There are plenty of options when it comes to recycling your smartphone. There are a number of great reasons to do so, but the choice, of course, is up to you. Don’t be wasteful – put your phone back into circulation in whole or in part, and alleviate not only your own carbon footprint but also our species’ collective one.
E-waste is a considerable contemporary problem, although we don’t see it or experience it first-hand in the West. Our technological leftovers are suffocating the developing world. We need to do better and recycling our smartphones is as good a place to start as any.
William Thompson
William Thompson is the Marketing Manager at Power Admin, a server monitoring software business in the Kansas City area. You can find him on Google+ and Twitter. William has been a professional in website design, digital marketing and 3D/graphic design for over 20 years.