All you need to know about recycling an iPhone

Why do you need to recycle your old iPhone?

You can help save energy, slow down global warming and preserve our precious metal resources by recycling your old cell phone instead of carelessly discarding it. Here are some good reasons to reuse or recycle your old iPhone:

Save Energy:

Do you know that you can save a lot of energy by recycling your old iPhone? When recycled properly, just one cell phone saves enough energy to power a laptop for 144 hours. As the records show, every year more than 130 million cell phones are tossed away in the United States. If recycled, they could save enough energy to power on over 24,000 homes for a year.

Conserve Minerals:

iPhone is made of valuable metals such as copper, zinc and gold. Through recycling, we can preserve this increasingly becoming scarce minerals and cut the energy needed to extract them from the natural resources. From one million iPhones recycled, we can recover about 15 tons of Copper, 325 kilograms of Silver as well as 35 kilograms of Gold and 15 kilograms of Palladium. Now you imagine that how much minerals and energy could be saved just from 130 million phones discarded annually.

Avoid Health Problems:

Cell phones and other electric devices contain toxic materials that not only pollute landfills and the environment but also pose a serious health hazard for both humans and animals. Lead used in a cell phone can lead to cancer and cause cognitive problems in humans. Arsenic or cadmium are also known as a source of cancer.  Apart from avoiding problems caused by these materials, recycling your old iPhone helps prevent infecting our mother nature.

How much iPhone is recycled?

Like the vast majority of electronic devices, most iPhones either collect dust somewhere in our homes or offices or get sent to the landfill.  Since the first-generation iPhone was introduced in 2007, Apple sold more than 1.6 billion smartphones but only 20% of them are recycled, and the fate of the remaining iPhones are unknown. This slightly better than an average 12.5% rate of recycling electronic waste U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reported but still much improvement. This persuaded Apple to start e-waste recovery program in recent years and now they leading in the electronic waste industry.

Where to recycle your old iPhone?

Now you're convinced that you should recycle or resell your old iPhone it's time to find a safe way to get it recycled.

Let your iPhone get back home:

Your first and best option for recycling your old iPhone is to return your phone where it came from.  Apple is an extremely environment-friendly company and launches its own recycling program. You can drop your old iPhone in the nearby Apple Store or ask them to email you a prepaid mailing label or trade-in kit.  If your iPhone is in a good shape, they will give you a credit for purchasing new products or a gift card that you use in the App Store, whichever you choose. Otherwise, it will go to Daisy, Apple's disassembly robot that can recover the most of valuable resources inside your phone and sends the rest for safe recycling. 

The best thing about the recycling Apple program is that even if your iPhone is not eligible for trade-in, they will recycle your phone free of charge, and you can always be sure that your data is safe with them.

E-Waste charity fundraisers

Some local charities and non-profit originations such schools and churches often schedule e-waste events in which they accept your phone for recycling for a small fee. In this way you can kill two birds with one stone; be sure that our planet stays safe and support your favourite charity activities.

Your iPhone carrier

Check with your phone carrier to see if they have a phone recycling program. Some carriers allow consumers to bring them in unusable electronic devices such as smartphones and accessories for recycling. Most of the time, you can apply online for their offer too.

Your local municipality

Because electronic device trashes are increasing tragically, many cities or countries are now offering free e-waste recycling services. To see whether this service is available in your area, check your own town, city or country website. 

How to prepare your iPhone for recycling?

Before you give your demode iPhone to Apple or a third-party company for disassembly or sell it to someone, you should get your ex-nearly-prefect phone for its last trip. This means you have to back your iPhone then wipe it completely. Here is a guide for how to wipe and reset your iPhone: 

Backup your iPhone:

When you say goodbye to your outdated iPhone you don't want to say goodbye to your pictures and personal data too. So, it's very important to back up your iPhone before putting it at the hand of a recycler or trading it in for a newer product.  For that, you can connect your phone to a PC through a lighting cable and use iTunes or alternately, backup your phone on  iCloud :

Go to Setting and tap on your name on top of the page

Tap on iCloud > iCloud Backup > Back up now.

The backup will take a while to complete depending on the size of your data, network speed and how long it's been since the last update. Be sure that your iPhone is connected to a Wi-Fi network and a charger while the process goes on.

Sign out from Apps, Services and Email Accounts

To keep your personal info safe, you need to sign out from every apps and services you subscribed. Go through any app you're signed into and tap sign out.

To remove your email from your soon-to-be-recycled iPhone just head into Settings > Passwords & Accounts.

If you haven't already, remove your SIM card and disconnect peripherals paired to your phone(Apple Watch, Earbuds, etc.).

Reset and Wipe your iPhone to the factory settings

Go to Settings

Tap on General

Scroll to the bottom and select Reset 

Tap on Settings > Passwords & Accounts.

Enter the PIN of your phone and Apple ID Password 

When asked choose yes to disable Find My (Previously known as Find My iPhone)

With your phone is wiped and reset, you can send it for recycling with peace of mind.
When a new iPhone arrives, you want to ditch the old iPhone to make room for the one. But throwing your phone in the nearest trash bin or letting it to collect dust in the drawer is not the best idea, neither for our planet nor for your budget and health. If your iPhone is up and working a better idea is to trade in your device for a newer one or donate it to a charity or someone in need. Nevertheless, if your iPhone is drawing its last breath, you need to send it for free recycling.