There are 5.6 billion mobile phone handsets in existence today. There are 7 billion people in the world. Over 70% of the world's population own a phone. In a perfect world 5.6 billion handsets in use today would have been recycled in a few years, being sold to developing countries or broken down to get at those precious metals inside (and get rid of the nasty stuff too). Of course, the reality is that most of those phones will be kept by their owners even when they've upgraded to another handset. All of those numbers you've just glanced over are going to continue to increase - and so is the effect they're having on our environment.
When asked "why don't you recycle your mobile phone" the most frequent response was "I prefer to keep my old mobile as a backup". We totally understand, some of us here have two phones in our pockets right now, nevermind the old ones waiting at home just in case of bath time disasters...but do you really need that second or third mobile phone? If you're a business user, maybe. If you're an 18-40something with a penchant for shiny new tech we think you're just being silly, and we're just as bad.
Another regular response was "I don't want to give my phone away for nothing". You've got us there again too. You're looking at anywhere from £100 to £500 just to get your hands on your new phone, plus £25 and more each month for the privilege of using it. For something that's contracted to you for a year or two, that comes to between £500 and £1000 over the time you use it - and what do you do when the contract ends: Go through the process over and over again. Personally, we wouldn't even spend £500 a year on a TV never mind a gadget my boss can call me on night and day.
We all know money is an incentive for pretty much anything. For £50 you could make me abseil down a hill and I don't like heights. For £100 I might let you put a spider on me, and I definitely don't like spiders. For £220 I might let you take my Samsung Galaxy S II off me... and I LOVE that. If you put your mind to it, the bottom line is this: We've got money locked away in that little device that can be very easily converted into cash. Have a think about what you really use those other phones for. Does it only see the light of day because you've got your Angry Birds save games on it? If you really needed a backup phone, you could just walk into any phone shop and pick up a cheap pay-as-you-go handset that will keep you connected until your main mobile is back in your hands. Every day you keep those other handsets that are still relatively new in your back pocket or your kitchen cupboard you're losing £'s - don't delay!!
You might also want to have a think about whether you're happy becoming a statistic when someone wants to know whether there are more mobile phones sold than toothbrushes each year. Oh no.
Want to know more? https://www.onrecycle.co.uk/sell-my-phone/
