See our mobile phone page for our recycling service.
Mobile phones are widely used in New Zealand and with changes in technology, product failures or breakages, and a desire to upgrade means that there is a continual stream of phones that require recycling.
Mobile phones contain recoverable material including gold.
Before taking a mobile phone in for recycling it is recommended that you carry out a factory reset to clear all you personal data. This means the phone can be reused rather than being “bricked“.
The Starship Children’s Hospital in conjunction with Swapkit operated a mobile phone recycling scheme for a number of years. It was a fund-raising scheme resulting in over $2.3 million being donated to the hospital over a period of six years.
A number of other recycling schemes have operated in New Zealand including Vodafone’s “The Old, The Broke and The Ugly” service with $5 per phone donated to the Zero Waste New Zealand Trust.
The RE:MOBILE government accredited product stewardship scheme for mobile phone recycling began in 2014 and is operated by the New Zealand Telecommunications Forum.
Further information
- Lost & Stolen Mobile Phones information at the New Zealand Telecommunications Forum
- Mobile phone recycling at Wikipedia
News
The consumer rights watchdog says some manufacturers are gluing parts together, withholding replacement parts, or hard-coding locks that stop replacement parts from functioning.
EU countries and lawmakers have agreed to a single charging port for mobile phones, tablets and cameras in a world first.
The European Union’s bid to adopt a common charging port for mobile phones, tablets and headphones took a step for ward on Wednesday when an EU panel backed the proposal, paving the way for an assembly vote next month.
Galaxy Upcycling: How Samsung Ruined Their Best Idea in Years | iFixit18 May 2021
Samsung had a revolutionary approach to reusing old Galaxy phones four years ago. We were an excited partner. What happened to Galaxy Upcycling?