So you just got new company phones for all your employees. Maybe your old phones were on their last legs, or you wanted to take advantage of your carrier’s free upgrade to get the latest iPhone models. In any case, you’ll have several old phones that you’re not quite sure what to do with.
While you could throw them in your regular trash bin, you shouldn’t. Your devices’ toxic materials (like mercury) will likely end up in landfills and compromise the quality of groundwater.
Instead, you should recycle your phones. But this process doesn’t involve tossing your devices in your local recycling bin with your papers and plastic bottles. We’re talking about electronics recycling with a professional company like Newtech Recycling.
Curious as to the exact process? Read on to learn what happens when you recycle your business’s old cell phones.
Determining You No Longer Need Your Phones
The first step in recycling your phones is determining that you no longer want to hang onto them.
Ensure that you don’t have a use for your devices before you turn them over to an electronics recycling company. Are you unable to find a new home for them with other employees? Are your devices no longer functioning?
Even if your devices still have some life left on them, you may feel uncomfortable giving them away to individuals who might not use them. Instead, you can hand them over to an electronics recycling company, knowing that your mobile devices won’t dangerously inhabit landfills.
Ensuring Legal Compliance
Choosing to give your phones to a certified center can also help you comply with specific laws. While there are no federal electronic recycling laws, some state laws govern the disposal of electronic devices.
Twenty-five states currently have local recycling laws in place regarding electronic devices. These laws vary from location to location, but most demand the proper recycling of certain electronics for both consumers and businesses.
It’s essential to work with a trustworthy, certified company that performs local recycling properly. Otherwise, you could pay thousands of dollars in fines for recycling with a company that doesn’t go about the process correctly.
What to Do Before You Hand a Phone Over for Recycling
Your business will likely have old phones to discard at one point or another, as the average lifespan of an enterprise mobile device is less than 2.5 years.
Here’s what you should do before you hand your cell phones over for local recycling (according to the Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA):
- Terminate or disconnect your service.
- Clear your mobile devices’ contacts and other personal information.
- Take out your SIM cards and transfer them to your new phones.
Which Parts of Your Cell Phone Require Recycling?
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), almost all components of your cell phones require recycling:
- The screen (made of plastic, glass, and liquid crystalline)
- The circuit boards (made of gold, copper, silver, lead, and palladium)
- The rechargeable batteries (made of lithium metallic oxide)
- SIM cards (if you don’t transfer them)
- Old phone chargers
Handing Your Phone Over to a Recycler
Once you understand the beginning stages of recycling cell phones, it’s time to hand them over to a qualified company.
The company will plan a pickup of all your business’s old electronic devices and package them for transport.
Once they arrive at the facility, the company will clear all the mobile devices of any data you left behind. This process will ensure the security and privacy of your business.
From there, the local recycling company will perform one of three tasks:
1. Resell As Is
Sometimes, cell phone owners turn in their old devices because they want an upgrade. Their devices aren’t necessarily obsolete, so Newtech Recycling or another company can find willing buyers to purchase them in their current state.
2. Turn Two Bad Phones Into One Good Phone
Sometimes the screen of a smartphone will be in pristine condition, but it has a bad battery. Recycling smartphone parts is an effective way to refurbish otherwise unusable mobile devices.
3. Sell the Materials into the Commodities Market
Some cell phones are beyond repair, but that doesn’t mean they’re worthless. In fact, companies can extract their various parts for use in other applications.
Cell phones may seem like simple-enough mobile devices. They’re handheld, and we use them every day, so how complex can they really be?
However, a lot more goes into the manufacturing of these mobile devices than you may originally think. Cell phones feature many materials like glass, steel, nickel, and various plastics.
The electronics recycling company you give your mobile devices to can carefully separate all these materials from one another. After melting them or leaving them intact, the company will sell these materials to the commodities market. This practice results in less waste of time, energy, and resources, so it receives approval from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
This practice is particularly beneficial to the environment, as these materials demand significant resources to mine or produce. Offering them for reuse is much better for the environment.
Note: Resources like copper are declining in discovery as the years go on. They’re becoming more scarce and expensive to acquire. Whether a local recycling center melts them down or tosses them in their original form, these resources are better off separated than left in the electronic device.
When it comes to mobile waste recycling, the materials in mobile devices will find new purposes. For example, HVAC companies can use recycled copper pieces in a home’s heating system. Or, a manufacturing company can use the repurposed plastic to create containers for beauty products. The possibilities are endless, really.
If an electronics recycling company can’t convert the old materials into usable components, it won’t just discard them carelessly. Instead, it’ll work to keep hazardous waste out of landfills and the larger environment.
Want to Get Rid of Your Old Cell Phone? Contact Newtech Recycling Today.
Did your business get new cell phones recently? Is it looking to trash the old ones? There’s a responsible way to dispose of them. Contact us at Newtech Recycling today, and we’ll help you recycle them properly.