I'm looking for an old model mobile phone but nobody seems to keep old phones any more.
Sometimes they are donated by people, often into special collecting bins in shopping centres and in mobile phone shops.
I have heard of these special bins being busted open by people trying to get a better phone for themselves.
What exactly happens to old mobile phones?
Well it's a lot like what happens to old clothes. Apparently some phones are "re-used" in other countries with older cellular infrastructure.
Based on personal experience of what sometimes happens with unwanted clothes [also this], there's a suspicion in my own mind about whether this actually happens in most cases with old phones.
Other older phones are recycled.
I don't know why but I am suspicious of this idea that somehow old phones are broken down into something that can be used again. I mean think about the average phone battery based on NiCad technology. You take the battery, strip off the outer bezel and case and then deconstruct the thing down until you get a small amount of Nickel and a small amount of Cadmium.
I just can't see how this is economically viable in the long term.
Bringing an old phone to your local "bring centre" for safe disposal makes sense. Dropping in into a box or donating it for use elsewhere doesn't add up from where I'm sitting.
Sometimes they are donated by people, often into special collecting bins in shopping centres and in mobile phone shops.
I have heard of these special bins being busted open by people trying to get a better phone for themselves.
What exactly happens to old mobile phones?
Well it's a lot like what happens to old clothes. Apparently some phones are "re-used" in other countries with older cellular infrastructure.
Based on personal experience of what sometimes happens with unwanted clothes [also this], there's a suspicion in my own mind about whether this actually happens in most cases with old phones.
Other older phones are recycled.
I don't know why but I am suspicious of this idea that somehow old phones are broken down into something that can be used again. I mean think about the average phone battery based on NiCad technology. You take the battery, strip off the outer bezel and case and then deconstruct the thing down until you get a small amount of Nickel and a small amount of Cadmium.
I just can't see how this is economically viable in the long term.
Bringing an old phone to your local "bring centre" for safe disposal makes sense. Dropping in into a box or donating it for use elsewhere doesn't add up from where I'm sitting.
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