Steps to recycle phones
Every year, there are millions of phones being thrown away. Most of these phones are still in good working condition and some can still be fixed. Most of us would change phones every now and then just because a better version came out of the market. In the United States, about 20% of mobile phones are recycled and in the UK, it’s about 10%. What happens to the 80 or 90% of these phones? Well they end up in landfills polluting our environment. Phones contain cadmium, mercury and lead which can end up penetrating the water that we drink or on various food resources. The good news is, the environmental damage caused by mobile phones can be lessened only if we know how to recycle phones. Yes you heard it right, there’s such a thing called “phone recycling”.
Wireless phones and accessories like charger can be of better use by helping a charity or by simply selling it for cash. Before you decide which charitable organization or which online auction you’ll deal with, you have to make sure first that you terminate the service associated with the phone. The next thing that needs to be done is the deletion of all contacts, messages and information on the phone. This is for your own security, you don’t want a stranger browsing through your personal messages or any information about you. Remove your SIM card as well if it has one.
What are the steps to recycle phones? After you’ve done all the things that were mentioned above, it’s time for you to decide whether to donate your phone to an organization like “Cellphones for Soldiers” or sell it so you can get cash out of it. Either way it’s fine. There is a lot of information online, you just have to search for participating numbers and follow the instructions how you can send them your phone, it’s better if you find one in your area. There are over 700 charitable organizations which support phone recycling. If you decide to keep the money so you can buy something else from it then it’s totally up to you, what matters is you decide to recycle your phone to a better use.
