Why We Should Recycle Old Cell Phones

Do you throw away your obsolete cellular phones?

For a long time, I was one of those who never had a clue that cellular phones can be recycled. Most people these days have one or a couple of cell phones stored in a closet somewhere. After a while, when we rediscover these cell phones, these will most likely end up in the trash bin, and eventually, in our city’s landfill.

Can there be a more viable, more environmentally-friendly way? Let's recycle our cell phones.

The Great Cell Phone Avalanche

Here are the actual figures about the dismal situation of cell phone recycling in the US at the moment. Every year, 37 million more used cell phones are hidden in our drawers, and 10 million more units get dumped in our landfills. Of the 125 million used phones replaced every year, only 9.4% are recycled. There are now close to a billion total old cell phones in America, today.

Like most e-waste, mobile phones contain metals and chemicals that are extremely lethal to humans. Toxic heavy metals like lead, mercury, and cadmium are found in the circuit boards and batteries of cell phones. Carcinogenic chemicals like brominated flame retardants (BFRs) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) are also present in the casing of many cell phones. Lead, one of the most dangerous metals known, has been associated with brain development problems in children and impaired brain functions in adults. Cadmium mixtures are carcinogenic and exposure to this metal can cause liver, kidney (irreversible, and often fatal), respiratory and bone density complications.

Our sanitary landfills are engineered to keep substances leaking from solid waste, but no one can absolutely guarantee that the e-waste, like cell phones, we deposit so nonchalantly, will not contaminate our underground water systems. The probability of this to happen is rather high, we’re basically poisoning our wells every time we dump e-waste into our landfills.

Is there money in Cell Phone Recycling?

If you need instant cash, turning in your old phones for recycling can be quite lucrative. You can do the exchange online, and the phone exchange or refurbishing companies will pay as much as $50 for each phone you send to them. So, how do these companies make money out of the exchange. Simple. They market these phones, for a neat mark-up, to wholesale (usually in lots of 100) buyers in South America or Asia. You earned something from the sale of a used item, while helping bring wireless capability to the developing countries. Think about it.

Umicore, a Belgium-based giant recycling business, harvests precious metals like gold, silver, platinum, copper, and coltan, as well as manufacturing recyclables like glass and plastic from tons of discarded cell phones. They call this process “surface mining.” There’s actually more gold to be found in a ton of junk phones than from 17 tons of gold ores! Less than half of 1% of the e-waste that go through the recycling process can not be returned to the production cycle and is then burned for electricity generation.

Trying to harvest precious metals from your used phones at home is not a sound idea because of the toxic industrial chemicals used in the procedure and the fact that only trace amounts are present in each phone. It takes recycling tons upon tons of discarded cellular phones for the giant recycling companies to make a profit out of it.

How do you recycle cell phones?

Recycle your cell phones through to your favorite charity.

Help your chosen charity or non-profit gather funds for their activities or causes by giving your used cell phones to them. You can even begin your grassroots recycling campaign by gathering used mobile phones in your workplace, town or neighborhood and sending these to refurbishers to benefit your favorite charity. Ask for support, communicate with other people and outfits who are doing the same. Certainly, there’s now a cell phone program currently going on in your community, and help from you would definitely make a huge difference.

Give your old or used phones to someone you know.

Ever come across the phrase “reduce, reuse, recycle?” Doubling the usage of a used cellular phone by having a friend or family member to reuse it, may be the fastest and most practical way to recycle. An old phone you’ve replaced for a newer model or because you switched companies, is almost certainly still perfectly usable for 1 or 2 more years. Remember to ask your buddy or relative to recycle the unit properly when the time comes.

Recycle cell phones through recycling and refurbishing companies.

Another method that’s fast and convenient is to recycle your discarded mobile phone in the internet. Mobile phone recycling and refurbishing companies, like Pacebutler Corporation in Edmond, Oklahoma will pay as much as $50 for each cell phone you send them. Just visit their site, find out how much is the actual price of your phone, print out a pre-paid shipping label, and mail your phones. How fast is this process? Usually, you’ll have your money within 4-5 business days after they get your phones.

Recycle cell phones through the manufacturer or service provider.

Cell phone producers are always worried about their supply of production resources. Companies like Nokia, Alcatel, Motorola, as well as service networks like AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint, all have mobile phone trade-in or repurchase initiatives to make sure that they have a constant source of recyclables for their production cycle. Sending your discarded phones back to them ensures that these units are recycled responsibly. Shipping is usually free, and there are plenty of phone stores who have phone recycle boxes ready.

To quote the US Environmental Agency (EPA), cell phone recycling is an “easy call to make.” If every one contributes, we all can move forward towards improving the phone recycling rate in this country. It’s not just about preserving the environment, [cellular phone recycling also protects our health. Let’s all recycle our cell phones, today.


Pacebutler Corporation, and other online trading and refurbishing companies, buy used phones directly from phone users in the United States. You may also donate cell phones to your favorite non-profit or charity through the facility hosted by Pacebutler.

Joseph Campbell writes about recycling and the environment. He is a regular contributor to the Pacebutler recycling blog.


Credits: Image used originally posted in Flickr by user joelogon and used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.