Phones & Devices

Donate your phones to charity

Some charity shops like Oxfam and British Red Cross accept old mobiles; they can raise valuable funds by passing them on to mobile phone recycling companies. The organisations hand them in for bulk recycling and keep the money they make, putting it towards charitable causes.

Little Lives UK - Children’s Charity London

You can send in your old mobile phone or tablet to Little Lives UK free of charge, using their prepaid shipping label. When you send in your old mobile phone, they will check to see whether or not it can be refurbished. If it can, your phone will be repackaged and sold on. If it can’t, they will pass on your device to a recycling company, who dismantle your phone in a safe and environmentally friendly way, and reuse parts in the mobile phone industry. Money raised from every phone helps us achieve their objective of supporting disabled and disadvantaged children.

Against Breast Cancer

The charity Against Breast Cancer offer a mobile buy back scheme for business smartphone users. You can donate your company’s old smart phones which will generates a minimum donation of £2.50 for each handset sold. To sell your old handsets contact them using their online form. Collection is free and can be made from any address within the UK. Secure data wiping is also available at £2.50 per phone.

Recycle your phone with Fonebank, Money Supermarket or Envirofone

Before attempting to sell your phone, consider the value of your time. Will the return be worth the time you put in trying to sell it?

If you are keen to sell your phone, take a look at Fonebank, Money Supermarket or Envirofone to see if you can make some money while recycling your mobile. Cash amounts vary widely depending on how high-end your phone was in the first place; sometimes the amount is very low, but the process of sending in your phone is generally simple.

Tesco phone recycling service

Tesco has a handset recycling service. You can either trade in your phone online or at your local Tesco Mobile Phone Shop. Depending on how much your phone is worth, you may receive a Tesco voucher or cash. If you choose to complete the process online, sending Tesco your phone is free of charge.

Recycling your phone with Carphone Warehouse

Carphone Warehouse can recycle your phone for you. Just drop it off at any Carphone Warehouse store and they will do the rest. As a thank you, they will give £10 to charity (including £5 to Get Connected) for every phone you donate.

Alternatively, they also offer an online trade-in service. Once you have completed your trade-in online, they will send you a pre-paid envelope and once you send it back to them, they will send you the money for your phone.

Recycle your phone and device with Apple

You can take any Apple device to any UK Apple Store and they will recycle it responsibly and free of charge. You can bring devices of other brands on a like-for-like basis and they will recycle them too. They also accept any small electronic device and battery without purchase of a new product or battery.

Apple also offer a trade-in service, meaning you can trade-in your eligible device for credit towards your next purchase, or get an Apple Store Gift Card you can use anytime.

Mobile phone stores on the high street

If you are still unsure how to recycle your phone safely, visit any mobile phone retailer on your local high street and ask how you can recycle them. Even if you’re not buying a new phone, most provide postal envelopes you can use to recycle your old one.

Sell your phone to someone who needs it

If you want to try selling your phone yourself (and you consider this a valuable use of your time) you can try the comparison tool on the Money Saving Expert website to find who’s offering the best price or sell them yourself on websites like eBay and Gumtree.

Alternatively, you can post in local Facebook groups to see if someone nearby would like to buy your phone from you.

If you’re not worried about making any money, you can always pass on your phone or device for free at places such as Freecycle and Freegle.

Dispose of your phone safely

If you'd rather not 'recycle' your phone using any of the above, you can dispose of it at most household waste and recycling centres in the containers marked "small electricals". Follow the link to find your nearest recycling location.