Gadgets & Devices
A clear guide to recycling old electronics the right way, including how to wipe your data first and find proper e-waste recycling near you.
Recycling old electronics well is a three-part job: erase your data so it cannot be recovered, keep anything still working in use, and hand the truly dead gear to a certified e-waste recycler instead of the trash. The order matters, and it starts with wiping, because once a device leaves your hands you have no control over the storage chip inside it. Get those three steps right and you protect both your identity and roughly 60 kilograms of recoverable metals for every tonne of e-waste, according to the UN's 2024 Global E-waste Monitor.
This is the step people skip, and it is the one that matters most. A used phone or laptop routinely holds saved passwords, two-factor tokens, banking apps, photos, and logged-in sessions. Do not sell, donate, or recycle any device until the storage is genuinely erased, not just "reset."
Every iPhone since the 3GS encrypts its storage by default, with the key locked in the Secure Enclave, so a proper reset is cryptographically final. Sign out first: Settings > [your name] > Sign Out. This removes your Apple Account and disables Activation Lock, which otherwise leaves the next owner locked out. Then go to Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Erase All Content and Settings. That command throws away the encryption key, leaving the remaining data as unrecoverable noise.
Android has encrypted storage by default since Android 6.0 Marshmallow (2015), but there is a trap called Factory Reset Protection (FRP). Remove your Google account first at Settings > Passwords & accounts > [your account] > Remove account, then run Settings > System > Reset options > Erase all data (factory reset). Skip the account removal and FRP can brick the device for the next user while your login stays tied to it. Be extra careful with devices made before 2015: on unencrypted early Android, a factory reset alone has been shown to leave recoverable data behind.
On Windows: Settings > System > Recovery > Reset this PC > Remove everything, then choose "Change settings" and turn on Clean data, which overwrites rather than merely unlinking your files. Confirm BitLocker was already on under Settings > Privacy & security > Device encryption for belt-and-suspenders protection. On any Mac with Apple Silicon (M1 or newer) or a T2 chip (2018–2020 Intel models), use System Settings > General > Transfer or Reset > Erase All Content and Settings. Older Intel Macs lack that button, so switch on FileVault first, then erase the disk from Disk Utility in Recovery mode.
For a spinning hard drive (HDD) you are retiring, physical destruction — drilling the platters or letting a recycler shred it — is the certain route. SSDs are different and trip people up: wear-leveling scatters data across cells that overwrite tools cannot reliably reach, so old "multi-pass wipe" software does not do the job. Use the drive's built-in secure erase inside the maker's utility (Samsung Magician, Crucial Storage Executive) or lean on encryption you enabled earlier. The professional benchmark is NIST Special Publication 800-88; reputable recyclers follow it and will issue a certificate of data destruction if you ask, which is worth the paperwork for work laptops or anything holding financial records.
The greenest device is the one that stays in use. Before you send anything to be shredded, sort the drawer into three piles: still works, could be repaired, and genuinely dead.
Working laptops, tablets, and phones — once wiped — can be sold on a platform like Swappa or Back Market, or donated to school refurbishment programs, domestic-violence shelters (which use donated phones for emergency calls), or nonprofits like the National Cristina Foundation. Devices with one worn-out part are often worth fixing rather than tossing: a phone battery replacement runs roughly $50–90, and a laptop battery or SSD swap can add three or four years of life for a fraction of a new machine's cost and manufacturing footprint. iFixit publishes free teardown guides and sells the exact toolkits if you want to do it yourself.
Only when a device is beyond both use and repair does true recycling begin. Even then, the gold in the connectors, the copper in the wiring, and the cobalt and lithium in the battery all have real recovery value.
Tossing electronics in your curbside bin or household trash is the worst option, and in more than 25 US states it is illegal for items like TVs and monitors. Regular recycling plants are not built for the lithium batteries and mixed plastics-and-metals inside gadgets, and those batteries start fires in collection trucks.
The single most important filter is certification. Look for a recycler certified to R2v3 (Responsible Recycling, administered by SERI) or e-Stewards (run by the Basel Action Network). Certification means your old gear is dismantled under audited safety and environmental rules rather than shipped to an informal scrapyard overseas to be burned. To find one near you, search Earth911.com or the EPA's directory by your ZIP code and material type.
Loose lithium-ion batteries — the kind in phones, laptops, e-cigarettes, and cordless tools — must never go in trash or curbside recycling. Puncture or crush one and it can enter thermal runaway, a self-sustaining fire that is difficult to extinguish and has caused hundreds of blazes at waste facilities. Tape over the terminals of any loose battery with clear packing or electrical tape before transporting it.
For drop-off, the Call2Recycle network runs free battery and cellphone bins inside Lowe's, Home Depot, and Staples across North America — find the nearest one on call2recycle.org. If a rechargeable battery is swollen, warm, or bulging, it is already failing: bag it separately, keep it away from heat, and take it in promptly rather than leaving it in a drawer.
The biggest error is trusting a factory reset to erase everything. It is only reliable on encrypted hardware, which is why signing out and confirming encryption matters more than the reset button itself. Close behind is dropping gear in any bin with a recycling arrow, assuming someone downstream sorts it — they usually cannot, and mixed e-waste often ends up landfilled or exported. People also forget peripherals: chargers, cables, keyboards, and old routers are all recyclable e-waste, not landfill. Finally, do not hoard "just in case." A drawer of aging lithium batteries is a slow-building hazard, and devices lose resale value every month they sit.
On any modern encrypted device — an iPhone, an Android phone from 2015 onward, or a BitLocker/FileVault computer — yes, because the reset destroys the encryption key. On older unencrypted hardware or a bare hard drive, no; use secure erase or physical destruction instead.
No. Curbside programs are not equipped for the batteries and mixed materials in electronics, and in many states it is against the law. Use a certified e-waste drop-off, a retailer take-back program, or a municipal collection event.
They count as e-waste, so keep them out of the trash. Most retailer recycling kiosks (Best Buy, Staples) accept cables and chargers, and copper-rich cables are genuinely worth recovering.
Ask whether they hold R2v3 or e-Stewards certification and whether they provide a certificate of data destruction. A certified recycler will answer both readily; if a drop-off point cannot say where the material goes, take your gear somewhere that can.
Nova spent years as the unofficial tech-support person for everyone she knew before founding Clixvia to do it at scale. She believes technology should serve people, not baffle them, and writes clear, calm guides that treat readers as smart adults who simply weren't handed a manual. She has a low tolerance for jargon and a soft spot for a well-labeled settings menu.
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