Why recycling your phone is important?
Being a part of this new generation, we know that our planet is facing a lot of environmental damage. When you upgrade your old phone to a new one, you may think of the old one as garbage, but it can be very harmful to the environment. As we all know today, our surrounding eco-system has been damaged a lot, which is why we have to protect it against harm.
Mobile phones contain harmful fluids and gases that can cause great damage, not only to the environment, but to you as well. Therefore, you must recycle your old phones instead of throwing them away as they can be subject to an explosion or leak if exposed to direct sunlight or extremely cold temperatures.
Here are a few reasons why you should always recycle your phone:
Harmful Substances:
Materials used in the manufacturing of a mobile phone are harmful and even poisonous to the environment, humans, and animals altogether. The two most dangerous materials that a mobile phone contains is mercury, which can cause severe brain damage and many other health problems. Lead is also one of the materials used in mobile phones that leads to cancer. Although there are many more substances used these two are the most dangerous ones that can lead to serious medical health issues even death.
Therefore, it is always advised that one should not keep their old and unused phone with them as changes in temperature and moisture can result in your phone releasing those harmful materials inside your home.
Conserving:
When a phone is no longer of use, it does not mean that it is completely useless. There are many different parts of a phone that you can separate and conserve for future purposes such as the gold, solder, and silicon added that can be used for the upcoming and new phones. Conserving means that these valuable materials are taken out from the old phones and are sold to big manufacturing companies so that they can reuse them.
There are some rare earth materials that only China provides that she can always stop shipping in case of any conflict between two countries. Therefore, a professional may be able to recover and save some plastic, metal, and other rare earth metals from the old cell phone to be used for the new phones.
Reduction of waste materials:
Although, if you take good care of your phone, instead of throwing it away you can sell it or turn it into the original manufacturer so that they can reuse it and produce new handsets by recycling your old phone. This way you can prevent yourself from adding waste to our surrounding and contribute to saving the ecosystem.
Moreover, if your phone is dead and no longer eligible for use in any sort of way, you should send it to some recycling organization or even to a local place rather than keeping it with yourself. Those companies have professionals who open up old dead phones and extract useful items or materials such as silicon, gold, metals, etc. for future purposes. This reduces the number of waste materials being added to the Earth’s environment and keeps everyone safe from harmful substances and materials.
Saved money:
As many manufacturing companies offer trade-in where you can return your old phone in exchange for a new one, you can get a great deal from this. Although you do have to pay some money if you upgrade to a newer phone the company also offers you a discount or some other offers that allow you to buy the phone for less money. When you turn in a previously used phone to the original manufacturing company in exchange for a new one you can get a cash discount on it. This way you can both, save the environment and get a brand-new handset for a much lesser price.
Moreover, while selling a used phone, it is possible that you can sell it for a much greater price. This way you will have to add a few more to upgrade to a new one.
How to Recycle?
When it comes to mobile phone recycling there are a few steps that you should follow if your phone is still in working condition. That mainly includes cleaning and removing personal data files for your security. If the phone is already dead, then you can send it to the nearest recycling center where they can separate useful parts from the device and use it for further projects.
These are the following steps you need to follow before you turn in your old phone in exchange for a new one:
- Cleaning: Make sure you clean the phone only using alcohol as some cleaners contain ammonia that can damage the screen as well as the internal parts of your phone.
- Check phone backup: Ensure that the data on your old phone is completely backed up so you do not have much difficulty setting up your new phone and that all of your data is saved.
- Reset: To ensure the security of your data, it is always advised to factory reset your phone after backup before giving it away for resale or refurbishing because if you do not, your private files and data can be at risk.
- SIM and SD cards: You may have added SD cards in your phone for additional memory as well as a SIM card. It is most important to remove all such cards from your phone. This will help prevent any sort of damage leakage or illegal use with your SIM card.
- Model Number: Always note down your phone's model number as it is one of the major information a buyer requires at the time of purchase.
- Test check: Always be honest with the work you’re doing. Make sure to check all the main functions of your phone such as the touchscreen, camera, volume and power buttons, fingerprint sensors, and the display screen that they are all working correctly.
- Be honest: While turning in your phone for recycling, provide every detail about the phone and its condition to the buyer or organization. For their evaluation, they will conduct some tests to check whether the condition of the phone is good or not.
Where to Recycle Phones?
The most frequently asked question is where to recycle old mobile phones. For that there are, many organizations and companies offer trade-in programs. Even the actual mobile phone manufacturing companies offer this facility to you so you can easily get your old phone replaced by a new one if it’s in great working condition. A few of them are:
- Samsung
- Apple
- Amazon
Other than these major companies and carriers many other organizations can help you recycle your old phone by buying them. They either recover important and valuable materials or even sell the phone to other retailers.
If you are thinking of buying a new phone and do not know what to do with your old one, you can visit our partner website Mobile Monster. This is an Australian-owned business that is highly trusted and offers great money in return for your handset. Here, we provide you with the facility of sending us your old phones for recycling. It is a very easy and simple process saving you a lot of time and hassle. All you have to do is choose the phone you want to sell and mention its conditions so that a price can be offered to you accordingly. Your device is then reviewed and tested by us and then your money is sent to you within 24 hours of approving final offer price!
Conclusion:
As human beings living on this planet, it is our rightful job to protect and ensure that our environment stays safe and is free from harmful materials. Therefore, you should always give in your phone for recycling or resell it rather than keeping it with yourself for a longer duration of time. That is because high temperatures and moistures and lead to the phone being very dangerous and can be harmful to you if you have kept it in your house. Always ensure the safety of yourself and the people around you by taking your old and unused phones to a local recycler or an organization to help prevent damage to yourself and your environment. This way you can save money and get the new, upgraded version of your phone easily.
