How to give a second life to your old phones?

Our phones are small and space-saving. However, there comes a time when you have to let go. There are several solutions: it is possible to donate them to a non-profit association or deposit them with a company that recycles them. Unless you decide to do both at the same time, as Hubside.Store offers.

The figure is quite considerable. According to a study carried out by OpinionWay on behalf of the French Alliance of Digital Industries (Afnum), between 54 and 113 million unused mobile phones are sleeping in the drawers of the French.

More than two-thirds of this “hibernation park” is made up of devices that are still functional, their owners keeping them as an alternative solution for themselves or their loved ones. Non-functional appliances are kept due to lack of practical access to the recycling channel or lack of knowledge of it. Finally, many people choose to keep their old phone in order to protect their personal data.

Problem: if they are small objects and therefore not bulky, old laptops often end up in the garbage, which poses a real ecological problem. Indeed, these phones contain many polluting materials such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, tin, lead and mercury. Fortunately, most of these materials can be reused in new devices. Thus, a 300g smartphone contains approximately 255g of recyclable materials.

So what to do with your old cell phones? First option: donate them to associations that will be able to reuse them, as advised by the eco-organization Ecosystem, which encourages consumers to repair or recycle their smartphones. After creating his account on the jedonnemontelephone.fr website, the donor is invited to print a pre-paid label that he can stick on his own envelope.

Win-win operation

When the phone has been "undressed" (when the protective shell, earphones, charger, SIM card and other accessories have been removed), the owner must slip the device into the envelope and drop it off. this in a mailbox. The telephones collected will be immediately sent to the Ateliers du Bocage, a collective interest company member of Emmaüs France and specialized in the repair of mobile telephones.

Second option: drop off your old mobile with a company that recycles it. Among them, Hubside.Store, which organizes a citizen collection of used phones in partnership with the eco-organization Ecologic and for the benefit of the Ateliers du Bocage. Throughout the month of January, the cooperative society will put ballot boxes at the entrance of the Hubside.Store stores participating in the operation. It will be possible to drop off all types of used mobile phones, as well as batteries and other accessories. The Ateliers du Bocage will sort, test and repair the devices, taking care to erase the owners' data. The repaired smartphones will be put back on sale at solidarity prices in the Emmaüs shops, while the others will be recycled by the eco-organization Ecologic. It is a win-win operation. For each device deposited, customers of the Hubside.Store stores will be offered a €15 voucher. For its part, the company undertakes to donate €10 to Emmaüs for each multimedia device collected.

Getting 2021 off to a good start

Like Hubside.Store, more and more brands are offering phone recovery services. Thus, on the occasion of World Climate Day, on December 8, the operator Orange presented its new program called “re” (for “recycle, take back and recondition”).

The operator invites its customers to drop off their old mobiles at an Orange store. The devices are then taken back, reconditioned or recycled. For the operator, this program is an opportunity to "strengthen [its] commitment to the circular economy in all [its] activities and [its] practices", as explained by Fabienne Dulac, Director Deputy General, CEO of Orange France.

Finally, it is possible to call on WeFix, a company of the Fnac Darty group specializing in express repair of mobiles. Since February 2020, the company has been offering owners of Samsung, Appel or Huawei mobiles to buy back their devices. They are then reconditioned and put back on the market. The device may be damaged, but must work, be unlocked and not oxidized. The buyback price depends on the market rating of the smartphone. The owner is paid by bank transfer or by WeFix voucher. Valid for one year, they are valued at 10% compared to payment by bank transfer.

While 2020 has not been an easy year for most French people, one thing is certain at the start of 2021: doing something for the planet by donating, repairing or recycling your old smartphone has never been so easy. simple.