Ethically Kate: How to dispose of an old smartphone

Smartphones can be recycled for parts. Photo / Getty Images.

OPINION

Q: I need a new phone, but I am concerned about the inherent wastefulness of updating it. Do you have any advice on how I can recycle my old phone? How can I be sure I buy the most ethical replacement?

A: You can dispose of your old phone at places such as Computer Recycling, an Auckland-based business that focuses on preserving and reusing valuable components of your phone before recycling the parts that cannot be reused.

They offer collections within 50km of the Auckland area and you can drop it off in person (this is the free option) or order a recycling box that you can fill with other electronics and send back to them (this service is available all over the country).

If this doesn’t suit you, your local recycling centre is likely to have an e-waste collection point. Often schools also have an annual e-waste recycling initiative that is open to the community.

Whatever you do, don’t put your old phone in the rubbish bin. It’s likely many of the parts can be reused to fix other phones and the leftover elements can be separated and recycled into new things.

When choosing a new phone the decision should come with more nuance than just the recycling decision. Firstly, I encourage you to think about what purpose your phone fulfils.

For example, I am a content creator so my phone is my main work tool. I need it to be legendary. However, my mum uses her phone for communication with friends and family and taking highly important pictures of her dogs on the beach. With this in mind, Mum happily (sometimes begrudgingly) rehomes old phones from myself and my siblings when they no longer suit our requirements.

If you’re more like my Mum and don’t need a phone to do all of the fast fancy things, I recommend purchasing a second-hand or refurbished phone.

If you need something more substantial and are looking to buy new. I recently compared three phone companies (Apple, Samsung, Huawei) and, in my opinion, Samsung came out on top both socially and environmentally. In my view, their response to the right-to-repair movement and transparency around their sustainability goals exceeds other brands.

Unfortunately, phone companies haven’t completely ditched planned obsolescence (or building products designed to only last a certain amount of time) from their production design and all phones require finite resources to be pillaged from our planet, sometimes involving unethical methods.

So, whatever you do, think carefully about whether you really do need a new phone; rehome or recycle your old one, ignore the peer pressure and marketing pull to buy the latest upgrade every few months, and consciously care for your phone instead of mindlessly leaving it on the top of the car or on the public bathroom sink.