Most of us know that it’s responsible behaviour to recycle our plastic and glass, but what about recycling electronics? Many still don’t realize that it’s illegal for these to go in the dustbin, or why, but fortunately mobile providers, such as O2, have been raising awareness of the need for (and benefits of) recycling not just phones, but other electronic gizmos, such as games, music players, sat navs and tablets.

To begin with, recycling mobiles leads to numerous environmental benefits. Most importantly, as is true with any recycling effort, responsible disposal retains materials, and, therefore, energy. The simplest recycling is re-use of the mobile, rather than throwing away the energy involved in the extraction or production of materials plus its manufacture. The second-best recycling method for mobiles is reclaiming the many valuable and re-usable materials (including gold, copper, silver, and scarce rare earth metals), thus conserving raw materials and avoiding the energy costs of extracting and transporting these.

Additionally, recycling old electronics prevents harmful materials from polluting the environment – particularly the soil and ground water. Just as mobiles contain useful metals and plastics, they also contain potentially harmful chemicals and materials (mostly in the batteries) such as arsenic and mercury. While a single phone is not going to do a great deal of damage, the large-scale waste created by careless disposal of electronics (and there are a lot of unwanted phones) can rapidly develop significant pollution.

So, how exactly do you recycle your mobile? Most local public tips have a bin for phones and other devices. Alternatively you can obtain pre-paid envelopes to post off your phone for proper disposal. Even better, many of these companies will pay you for your old equipment. How much? Find out by visiting O2 or our comparison page for prices for recycling mobiles.

NB This guest editorial was brought to you by O2.

So far we’ve seen youngsters completely absorbed in their mobiles when eating, crossing the road, cycling, skateboarding (on a steep downhill heading towards a junction – surely a recipe for disaster) and today, a first of driving a ride-on mower (still on the lawn, fortunately) with one hand on the wheel and one on the text buttons. But the best was a lifeguard (in Slovakia) who was so interested in her mobile phone that we thought we should have taken our mobiles into the pool with us in case we needed to text ‘Help, drowning’.