Everything has an end…
So the time has come: you have bought a new smartphone – ideally a refurbished phone, of course – and now you have to get rid of your old phone. What can you do with a phone? Very important to move forward: Simply throwing it in the trash can is NOT an option, and we have collected the best and most creative alternatives for the “retirement” of your smartphone for you.
Tip #1: Give away
As sayings go – “One man’s junk is another man’s treasure.” Surely you know someone in your family or circle of friends who would be happy about your mobile phone. Assuming you don’t sell him or her an absolute junk of a phone.
If my phone wasn’t stolen, I would give my old phones away to friends – often in exchange for a bottle of wine or pizza. So then both have something from the exchange 🙂 The nice thing about this concept is that the recipient does not have to buy a new smartphone, and resources can be saved. At the same time, your old phone remains operational and can live a full-service life. And maybe you’ll get a pizza for free!
Tip #2: Keep using it without a SIM card
Thanks to numerous apps and functions that also work without a SIM card, you can get the most out of your old smartphone. We find three ideas particularly exciting:
Music while exercising: If you like exercising outdoors but don’t want to take your new phone with you, you can simply use your old phone to do so. With Spotify, you can download your music and listen in offline mode. The GPS tracker also works without a SIM card, and the sports tracker updates itself as soon as you are back on the Wi-Fi. This simply acts like an iPod touch!
eReader: You like to read, but your apartment is already bursting with books? Then it would be a good idea to turn your old phone into an e-reader. You can install an app for reading via the W-LAN and always load the latest bestsellers directly onto your device. Of course, it also depends on the size of your smartphone: With an iPhone 7, it is certainly a little more difficult to read, but here, too, habit counts, and it is always practical when traveling.
Baby monitor: Your baby takes its nap while you prepare a delicious snack in the kitchen or treat yourself to the long-awaited shower. Then you can put your discarded cell phone in the bedroom next to your baby and, so to speak, call yourself with your new cell phone via WhatsApp – or any other messenger that works via W-LAN. And boom, you have a working baby monitor for 0 euros.
Tip #3: Dispose of properly
If you think you can just toss your phone in the trash can at home, you’re pretty much wrong. Every mobile phone contains up to 30 different metals and pollutants that can seep into the ground at the dump and thus into our drinking water. If you want to dispose of your old phone without harming the environment, then we recommend that you look for the nearest recycling center in your area and take it there.
This way, the smartphone can be dismantled into its individual parts by experts and then reused for the production of new devices. This principle can be used to save resources on the one hand and to make the production of new products more sustainable on the other.
Tip #4: Sell your old phone
Today, lots of retailers are now making a conscious effort to become greener and eco-friendlier, with plenty of businesses building their business model on this concept, like Back Market. For a lot of these businesses, it may look like simply dropping your old phone into a machine or pot (simple as that, really). If online, you may have to fill out a questionnaire or form, as shown on Apple’s website, in which you will receive an estimate of how much your phone is still worth.
Tip #5: Keep the old cell phone
You could also keep the smartphone and later show it to your kids or even grandkids! They will probably laugh at your iPhone 11 Pro Max because it no longer meets the standard that will prevail in about 20 years. I can imagine you’ll hear comments like, “Mom, you can’t beam anywhere with that?” or “Dad, what is Apple?”.
Or maybe your phone will be worth a lot in the future because it’s so rare and even put on display in a museum. However, if you don’t want to wait 50 years for someone to pay £10,000 for your phone, then you might want to consider one of the other options.
Our conclusion on old cell phones
So you see, you can still do a lot with old phones. You can give them away, recycle them correctly, convert them into a baby monitor, turn them into money or donate them to a museum in the (very) distant future. No matter what you decide, don’t just throw it away, and especially don’t just throw it into nature. The small minicomputer can still experience so many new adventures and to end its journey like that is a premature death to the other countless beneficial possibilities instead. We and nature thank you very much.
