How many old mobiles do you have at home? What do you do with them? The truth is that we usually keep them like gold on cloth, hoping that one day you will return to ... what? To use them? You know perfectly well that they will be of no use to you, but you do nothing more than accumulate phones (yours and those of your family) in the drawer reserved for old mobiles.
But, did you know that you can recycle them and do good to the planet? There are multiple initiatives designed to recycle old phones and contribute to good causes. To start with, we will tell you why it is important to recycle mobile phones and how you can do it without making it difficult for you. In this way, in addition to getting rid of a lot of useless devices, you will be contributing to animal welfare, the conservation of many species and environments, as well as the lives of thousands of people around the world.
Why recycle old mobiles?
Every year millions of mobile phones are sold around the world . Specifically more than 1,500 million. And for each of these mobiles that are manufactured, a little coltan is used. Coltan is a material baptized as black gold, so its name says it all. 80% of its reserves are in the Congo and that is where it is causing serious problems at all levels: socio-political imbalance, smuggling, child exploitation and, of course, devastation of the ecosystem, with all that this entails. Thousands of species die due to the destruction of their natural habitats in favor of the excavation of mines for the extraction of coltan.
How to avoid all this? Well, seriously rethinking whether it is necessary to change phones so often and, if there is no other option, try to give them other uses. Not surprisingly, indiscriminate buying will do nothing but continue to cause problems for other species and people in areas already devastated and looted by large companies and governments themselves.
There are different ways to recycle old mobiles. Some can even be useful to help other people, animals and ecosystems. We tell you what you can do.
Donate your mobile to a non-profit organization
If you do not need the money, the most interesting option is to donate the mobile to a non-profit organization, which can take advantage of the benefits of putting the mobile in the recycling chain. The money obtained through the cession of these telephones can be of great help to them. You have different organizations at your disposal: Mona Foundation, Jane Goodall Institute, Intermon Oxfam or Amnesty International.
Give the mobile in exchange for money
If you have a few mobiles and want to earn money in return, you have it easy. There are companies that do the management, such as ZonZoo or Mobilbak. Then there are initiatives, such as Orange's, in which the recycling of mobile phones is encouraged from different spaces (educational centers, town halls, shops, etc.).
How do I have to recycle an old mobile
If you are going to donate your mobile to an NGO, it is not necessary that the phone is working. What is important about these devices is to recover part of their components, to later manufacture others. All you have to do is the following:
- Do a factory reset, to leave the phone as it came from origin and delete data and / or personal files
- If it doesn't work, don't worry because you don't have to do anything
- Open the phone and remove any SIM and memory cards that may contain
- You do not need to ship the phone in its original box. You don't have to deliver chargers, headphones, and other items either.
Follow the instructions indicated by the organization and start the shipment.