The responsibility of your electronics (2025)

Both A bad phone in an old laptop, which collects dust behind a table drawer or a closet, won’t have a better time to throw it. There is a good chance that your unwanted gadget can return to the useful service and can even help someone else or someone else. Recycling should be the last resort, but if there is nothing else for the gadget, there are ways to repeat the electronics responsibly.

Global e-waste organized 50 million metric tons in 2019 United Nations Global E-Waste MonitorAnd only 17.4 percent of these waste were collected and recycled. Old electronics end in landfills and Hellish e-waste cemeteries Where Toxic communities. The problem is just getting worse. This Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Forum In 2022 estimates that 5.3 billion uses the use of telephones. Governments, companies and people are waking up so that we have to do better. Great question, how? Here are some sources, services and ideas that can help.

Updated February 2025: We’ve added tips on electronics and details about a new battery recycling program.

Use devices for longer

Before you remove the devices, consider using them a little more. You really need to upgrade? Maybe you can Repeat your old device squeeze life more than that. You can Turn that old phone into a webcamfor example. If you are dead when you start shopping for a new device please do it to find your research Ethical and environmentally friendly electronics. Search manufacturers and retailers with trading and recycling programs.

Take into account Buy products used in eBay Or search for other marketplaces or updated gadgets. As the manufacturers Apple and Samsung Offer and you can download repaired devices Repaired goods in Amazon. Elizabeth Chamberlain, Director of Sustainability Ifixitrecommend Back to market For updated phones.

Move the devices

Those who can use family members, friends and neighbors to neighbors, are the best way to squeeze the maximum value of them. “Don’t let the devices be a neglected drawer or vaccine or discharge or discharge” Jeff Seibert, Serle (Sustainable Electronics Recycling International). “Get them in the hands of someone else that they can use them as soon as possible because of older devices.”

If you don’t know the one that can use your old electronics, try FreeKycle network or local I can’t get anything Find people interested in freebies on Facebook.

Repair and repair

If you plan to get a little more than a device, it is a smart movement to plan, repair or repair it to someone. If you want to try and repair a device, Ifixit It’s a great place to get started. There are many more than 90,000 step-by-step repair instructions covering phones, tablets, laptops, computers, gaming consoles and cameras.

YouTube is another excellent place to find repair videos and recommend checking repair technologies such as Chamzanlain Louis rossmann, Jessa Jones, Ben devices and junkand Rich VarupuritesHowever, there is no shortage of repair videos for the specific gadget you are looking for.