5 compelling reasons to recycle your old cell phone

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The twelfth annual Zero Waste Week kicks off on 2nd September and it’s all about Climate Change. What’s the connection? Well, did you know that landfill emissions are one of the biggest contributors to climate change?

Combine that with the research the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) commissioned that showed 82% of households have unused tech with no plans to recycle it, and I wanted to talk about the importance of recycling old electronics – in particular cell phones.

The RSC campaign aims to raise awareness of finite elements inside the electronic devices we all know and love, and encourage people to recycle, reuse or sell them on rather than leaving them sitting idle in households – or worse, ending up in landfill. Once these precious resources end up in landfill they can cause untold damage to the air, ground and water supply – not to mention the sheer waste of elements that could one day run out.

Fortunately there are some companies who can help you empty out your drawers and cupboards and get your old cell phones in the right hands. SellCell, as the name might suggest, offer Cell Phone Recycling and will help you find the correct partner to trade in your old phone & electronics, but will also get you the most amount of cash. Which makes it a win-win. In fact, SellCell taught me a lot about the importance of recycling – here are some of the facts I learned:

The growth rate of mobile devices is five times greater than that of the human race!

We say we’re in a technological age, and it would appear to be true! There are currently 8.97 billion mobile phones in the world and 7.7 billion humans. Incredible, right?

Protects wildlife

One thing I didn’t know is that gorillas are being massacred to the point of extinction as miners aggressively dig for an ore called coltan that is used in cell phones. So save the gorillas by recycling your phone!

Reducing our ‘fast tech’ culture

The average person updates their handset every couple of years, but did you know they can last up to 9 years? A phone recycled through SellCell gets resold 4.5 times and its lifecycle spans 9 years before reaching the end of its useful life.

Metals in cell phones are valuable

For every one million cell phones recycled, we can salvage 20,000 lbs of copper, 20 lbs of palladium, 550 lbs of silver, and 50 lbs of gold.That’s an awful lot of valuable and precious resources.

Only a small percentage of cell phones are recycled

It shocked me to discover that only 15% of cell phones are recycled. We can do much better than that, right?

For Zero Waste Week then, why not make the pledge to liberate your old electronics! Have a rummage through your drawers and cupboards and commit to send your old cell phones for recycling. You could make some cash, you’ll be helping the environment and you’ll be preserving resources for the future – what’s not to love!

Here’s more from SellCell about what happens when you recycle your mobile phone with them:

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