A growing number of companies now offer a service to recycle mobile phones, but what actually happens to your old phone when you send it in?
The choice of recycling company might be huge, but the majority are united in their methods of disposing of your phone. They typically clean up and resell phones that are still in good working order, or break malfunctioning units down to component form, and recycle whatever they can.
Some firms say they can resell up to 97% of the phones sent to them, with many finding their way to people in African countries where demand for cheap handsets is highest.
When a handset still functions, the companies will check and update the software, ensure everything still functions correctly, and generally apply some spit and polish to make it as shop fresh as possible. Many mobile phone recycling firms then pass the devices on to charities which specialise in shipping the handsets to poor and needy users in developing countries.
Mobile phone networks are more widely deployed than landline networks in regions like Africa, and the number of mobile phones in use on that continent far outstrips the number of PCs, meaning your old phone might end up providing a user's first experience of the Internet.
It might also end up as a valuable communications tool for an entire village. That lack of landline networks means you won't find many public payphones, so many villages have banded together to purchase a recycled mobile phone to act as their payphone.
Even if your phone looks dead it might still be salvageable with a software upgrade, provided the battery can still hold a charge.
If not, your old phone will be sent down route two - total destruction and recycling.
Mobile phones contain an array of different metals that can be melted down. Screens can be taken apart and their metals and liquids reused; and batteries can be disposed of in an environmentally-safe way, rather than being placed in landfill where their toxic components eventually leak into the ground.
The biggest part that mobile phone recycling can produce, though, is plastic. The casing of your old mobile phone is melted down, thus cutting consumption of natural resources like oil, which is used to make plastic.
Most of the firms offering mobile phone recycling will pay you for your old device. A Web search will quickly reveal the top companies that recycle mobile phones, though it might be worth consulting a price comparison website to compare the prices on offer for your specific model.
Once you've decided on a firm, it will typically send you a pre-paid envelope to send your phone in, and make arrangements for payment to be made once it arrives. If the value is high enough, it might be worth paying extra for guaranteed delivery.
The specialist waste industry is still growing, despite the recession, so the prices on offer could rise on the back of growing profits. The phones we recycle are also growing in complexity - imagine, you could be recycling the phone you use now in under two years - which could also lead to higher second-hand prices.
Regardless of the price on offer, the growing demand for old handsets in the world means there's never been a better time to recycle cellphones.
Presentation packaging for cash. Not only will you be paid for your old phone, you can help the environment at the same time.