You can’t just throw away an old phone or tablet. Not only does it add to the growing e-waste problem, but the battery is a fire hazard. Instead, you can donate, recycle, or repurpose it.
Whether you recently upgraded your smartphone or are moving and found a drawer full of old gadgets, you’ll want to dispose of or recycle them properly. With the never-ending cycle of upgrading phones yearly, you’re probably wondering where to recycle an old phone.
It’s a good idea to update your phone software when available or repair broken screens, making them last as long as possible. Plus, there are a myriad of uses for an old phone you’ll want to consider before throwing it out.
If you still want to get rid of an old phone or tablet, please don’t throw it in the trash. Instead, here’s what to do with it or where recycling is available.
Don’t Just Throw Away an Old Phone
For one, it’s better to repurpose an old phone instead of adding to the ever-growing e-waste problem. Or, take advantage of carrier trade-in deals to get a discount on your new one. And finally, you can always resort to Swappa or eBay and sell it to someone looking for an affordable used phone.
It should go without saying, but you’ll want to back up anything important before you dispose of an old phone or tablet. Once you’ve done that, don’t toss it in the garbage at home. You shouldn’t put it in your personal recycle bin either.
Improper disposal of old phones will create e-waste, and landfills will continue to grow as the materials don’t decompose and are full of precious metals. You’ll want to recycle it at a proper location.
More importantly, throwing an old phone or tablet in the garbage can is dangerous, and the battery can explode or catch fire, especially in a trash compactor. In a report from USA Today several years ago, nearly 65% of waste facility fires were caused by lithium-ion batteries in our phones, tablets, laptops, and other gadgets.
Most people have an old phone or two lying around somewhere, and if you’re not going to sell it on Swappa, BackMarket, or SellCell, here’s where you can donate an old phone or dispose of it properly.
Donate Your Phone to a Good Cause
I get it; not everyone wants to deal with trying to sell an old phone on Craigslist or Swappa, especially when buyers haggle and lowball. If so, consider donating it instead.
Cell Phones for Soldiers is a national non-profit organization with a great cause. It gathers old phones that people would otherwise throw away and gives them to active-duty military members and veterans. The organization even provides phone service for some, which is pretty awesome.
Another option is to donate that old phone to Medic. The organization will gladly accept your aging phone, tablet, laptop, and other accessories, then take care of everything for you. Medic will even pay for shipping, so all you have to do is box it up, print the label, and you’re done. Furthermore, Medic works with The Wireless Alliance to recycle old gadgets and then uses the funds to build open-source software that supports health workers across Africa and Asia.
Where to Recycle Old Phones and Tablets?
At this point, you’ve probably decided to keep that old phone and repurpose it, sell it online, or donate it to charity. However, if you’d rather recycle it, here are the quickest and easiest ways.
Several companies or organizations will gladly recycle old gadgets, including big box retail stores in almost every major city.
The easiest option for most is probably Best Buy, which allows each household to drop off up to three smartphones, tablets, or other accessories per day. Drop it off, and a Best Buy employee will handle the rest. You might even get a small gift card in return, which you can use on a case or accessory in-store. They’ll even recycle bigger items like TVs and monitors but for a small fee. Keep in mind that some locations may only accept a small number per day, so you could have to come back the next day and try again.
Call2Recycle is another widely known organization, and it’s actually one of the largest phone recycling services in the United States. Call2Recycle will accept smartphones, tablets, battery packs, and other things. Once received, they’ll get recycled, repurposed, or refurbished and sold. The service has a long list of drop-off locations, including select Lowe’s, Home Depot, and phone repair shops like UbreakiFix retail stores.
Donation giants like Goodwill (or Deseret Industries out west) are popular spots for donating old clothes and couches, but they’ll accept your aging smartphone too. Most Goodwill locations will take phones and electronics, and what can’t be sold gets recycled. Another option is the Salvation Army.
Or, look for an ecoATM drop-off location at retailers like Walmart, Kroger, Westfield, and others. With ecoATM, you fill out a form at a kiosk, place your old phone (even a broken one) in the kiosk, and get paid. The company has kept over 37 million phones out of landfills and is working hard to slow down e-waste. You might not get much cash from the kiosk, but you were going to throw it away anyways, right?
As detailed above, you can quickly drop off and recycle an old smartphone or tablet. Owners have plenty of choices in most major cities or the option to get a shipping label and donate it elsewhere. Or last but not least, sell it online. Either way, you’ll keep e-waste out of landfills, help the environment, and it’s just the right thing to do.
