What really happens to the phone you recycle?

Cell phone recycling is a commonly misunderstood term by consumers who turn in their phone to a recycling company. The word recycling implies that the cell phones are broken down into their raw materials for reuse in future products.However, this only happens with approximately 10% of the phones turned in.



These phones have truly reached their end of life due to their technological obsolescence which prevents them from working on any network worldwide. There are only a few materials that make economical sense to recover from phones, commonly the precious metals used in the circut borad.










The other 90% of cell phones turned into recycling companies are re-sold all around the world for re-use. Cell phones in developed countries, like the U.S., are rarely used for the full extent of their useful life, and are a primary candidate for re-use because their core functionality of making/receiving calls and text messages remains unchanged.