Mobile recycling.
What happens to old mobiles.
Help & support > My mobile > Mobile recycling > What happens to old mobiles
See Also
Know your recycling symbols.
The Crossed out Wheelie Bin symbol
Electrical and Electronic Equipment that was made after August 2005 should display this symbol on the packaging or product. Either send the product to be repaired and reused or use the bank locator to find where it can be recycled.
Battery recycling
This recycling symbol is very similar to the one above, but does not have a bar at the bottom of crossed out wheelie bin. This symbol will be used to support the Battery Directive which is due to become part of UK law in 2008.
FREE in store take back.
We offer a free in store take back of our customer's Waste Electrical and Electronics Equipment(WEEE)when they make a new purchase on a like for like basis, this is in accordance with WEEE Regulations implemented on 1st July 2007.
Why we recycle.
With over 15 million people in the UK alone replacing their mobiles every 18 months or so, we want you to help us ? and our partners Revive Mobile ? to make sure as many as possible end up with people who really need them. And as few as possible end up in landfill sites.
Where we recycle.
If we can give your old mobile a new lease of life, we send it to Eastern Europe, Asia or Africa. These are the places where new mobiles are least affordable and so where your old mobile can make the biggest difference, as landlines are often few and far between.
And when we can?t recycle.
Sometimes we can't recycle in other countries. If that's the case then we look at other ways of recycling. First of all we get all the metals out of the phone ? gold, platinum, silver, palladium and copper ? and we send that off to be melted down so it can be re-used.
We send the batteries to specialists in France where they take out the nickel, cadmium and lithium to recycle in things like power tools, saucepans and pharmaceuticals. Or even new batteries.
Last but not least, we'll get the metal out of old chargers. We send the plastic off to become things like traffic cones and buckets. The rest we incinerate using energy capture technology, to save on as much new wastage as possible.