How are mobile phones disposed of?
Old or damaged mobile phones cannot just be thrown in the bin. This is in part due to the chemicals contained in phone batteries that would be harmful to the environment if released into landfill or water systems. But equally, disposing of your phone this way is a waste of valuable materials. Instead, find an appropriate place to dispose of your phone.
Where can you dispose of your phone?
You have a few different options when it comes to getting rid of your old or defective mobile phone. It’s important that you choose a method and a location that takes mobiles specifically. We recommend:
- Your local council’s small electricals recycling points
- Check your curbside recycling (some will take electricals)
- Donate to a local charity shop (they can send them off and make a profit on the parts)
- Donate to a school or community group
- Send it back to the manufacturer
- Trade your old device in when buying a new one
- Hand it into a technology shop
- Donate it to a charity such as Pro Wildlife, Oxfam, Action Aid, and Fonebak
Donating your old device to a charity can double the positive impact of recycling a phone. Not only are you keeping dangerous materials out of the ground and helping to sustainably build new devices, but you are also helping ecological and humanitarian causes raise money to support their mission. Pick a project that is close to your heart, and know that your discarded device has contributed to positive change.
Why recycle your phone?
The rate that individuals and companies go through mobile devices is not relative to how quickly the devices degrade. As new technology, apps, and features are developed, users must replace their devices more and more regularly to stay ahead of the curve; but, in most instances, the old devices are in perfectly good condition.
For this reason, throwing your old phone in general waste is not the best option. Instead, consider recycling it. 80% of the parts within it, particularly fragments of copper, palladium, silver, aluminium, iron, and gold, are valuable and can be refurbished, reshaped, and integrated into new devices. In some cases, the entire device can be refurbished and updated. This is notably the case with Apple devices, the hardware of which is compatible with even the latest operating system updates.
Things to remember before smartphone disposal
Most people live their lives on their phones. By the time their usefulness expires, our mobile devices contain a huge amount of personal information about you and potentially your contacts too. If your phone is a company phone, it will likely contain a large amount of private business information too (you can read more about private use on company phones here). For this reason, properly servicing your phone before you recycle, donate, or sell your device is essential (employees won’t be able to sell company devices, only personal ones).
Before you get rid of your phone, whether you are an individual or a business, make sure you do the following:
- Ensure you know any saved passwords on the device, or be prepared to change them
- Download all saved photos, documents, and music, or save them to an SD card
- Remove your SIM and SD cards
- Reset your device to factory settings
With all company devices provided by Everphone, certified data deletion is part of the service.
Disposing of company phones
The turnover of tech in business is high, particularly when company devices are an essential part of modern infrastructure. Workplace Service Managers will be looking for money-saving options for disposing of large quantities of defunct devices. Even damaged devices can be profitable if you know where to sell them. Many second-hand tech dealers will be aware of the value hidden within a mobile phone, so will be able to offer you a fair price, particularly if you’re selling in bulk.
Read more: Huawei data privacy concerns
Company device rental
One option for businesses looking to reduce the number of devices they dispose of is to replace their company-owned tech with rental tablets, phones, and other devices. This solution ensures that upfront costs are kept to a minimum, only the necessary devices are kept in circulation, and old devices can be replaced with newer devices easily.
Devices that are returned to the rental company are automatically recycled or refurbished, so you know that you are contributing to a more sustainable cycle of products with a less damaging effect on the environment. Ecological mobile phone plans are also a great benefit to your employer branding when it comes to recruitment and employee perks.
How does Everphone dispose of company phones?
Mobile phones, tablets, and other company devices are our business. So, by acquiring your devices through Everphone, you can rest assured that we know the best ways to dispose of out-of-use products. All our discontinued devices are either recycled or refurbished, or a combination of the two.
Replacing defective mobile phones
Not every device is discontinued simply because its system is now out of date. Sometimes, there is a fault or defect. For businesses, defective devices can be costly, which is why there needs to be an effective solution. At Everphone, we replace defective devices within 24 hours. The faulty device is then wiped according to GDPR regulations, repaired, and re-entered into rental circulation. It’s our priority to make sure your business employees have access to the devices they need, so we skip the bureaucratic red tape and replace defective phones fast.
Renting your company devices from Everphone is a smart business decision. It helps reduce your carbon footprint and is a cost-effective way of offering an attractive perk to your employees.
