Mobile Phone Recycling Data

• 61% of the world’s population now owns a mobile phone.
• The number of mobile devices on the planet is growing five times faster than the number of people.
• A consumer keeps a phone for an average of 15 months before upgrading.
• The average mobile device has a usable lifespan of seven years.
• Only 12% of mobile phones are recycled.
• In 2016, 65,000 metric tonnes of mobile phones were discarded. That is the equivalent of 8.9 Eiffel Towers stacked into a heap.
• 350,000 mobile phones were dumped every day in 2010. That is more than 150 million phones a year.
• It takes 515 recycled mobile phones to power a home for a year.
• 80% of the parts in a phone are recyclable.

Why Consumers Aren’t Recycling Their Cell Phones

The mobile phone recycling figures above may come as a surprise. Although a phone can remain usable for seven years, many people replace theirs after little more than a year. Yet only 12% of devices are recycled. That leaves a huge number of old handsets sitting unused in cupboards, drawers and boxes at home.

When asked why they do not recycle old phones, people most often give the following reasons:

• They keep old phones as backups.
• They have not got round to it or do not have the time.
• They worry about data theft.
• They do not know how to recycle a phone.

Re-Use Is the Best Form of Recycling

Phones can be broken down into their component parts for recycling. However, when the goal is to protect the environment, the best form of recycling is re-use.

Passing your phone on to a friend or family member, or selling it so it can be professionally refurbished, is often the best option. It helps someone else get an affordable device they may not have bought new. It also reduces the need for further phone production. In many cases, it can put some money back in your pocket as well.

However, if you decide to sell your phone, you should think carefully about data security. Selling directly through eBay or Gumtree may bring in more money, but it can also increase the risk of a data breach. A factory reset alone does not remove every trace of personal data from a phone.

For that reason, selling to a professional recycler may be the safer option. High street brands such as CeX or GAME will use a robust GDPR-compliant mobile erasure tool. That means you can feel more confident that your personal data has been securely removed before the device finds a new home.