Tech Connect For You

[#1]

Mobile fans tend to get excited about the chance to upgrade to a new phone. But what becomes of your old phone when you’ve moved on to something sleeker and shinier? Many used handsets take up permanent residence in some lonely junk drawer, or worse yet, an overcrowded landfill.

It doesn’t have to be that way. Cell phone recycling stations are starting to appear everywhere from libraries to shopping malls, and Best Buy is helping lead the charge. You can recycle a wide array of used electronics free of charge at your local Best Buy or Best Buy Mobile location, including phones, chargers, headsets and mobile broadband devices. We’ve partnered with several reputable recycling firms around the country to make sure everything measures up to our Consumer Electronics Recycling Standards. Check out the full array of recyclable materials here, and read our Recycling FAQs here.

So what happens to those old phones once they’re in the recycling program? Re-sellable phones are wiped of data and refurbished for the pre-owned market. Other phones have their batteries removed and sent to a recycling facility, while their bodies are fed through high-tech shredders that separate out their component materials and sort them for re-use. Some of these materials will be used in the construction of new phones, a field that has Best Buy very interested. With the advent of greener phones like the LG Viper, the era of the cradle-to-cradle cell phone is close at hand.

And then, of course, there’s the popular Best Buy Trade-In program. Check out the estimated value of your phone using our easy online calculator, then trade it in online or in your local store and we’ll give you a Best Buy gift card for the assessed value. So to recap, by bringing your old phone in to Best Buy, you can do something nice for the environment, help further the cause of renewable technology and maybe even go home with some extra spending money in your pocket. That’s about as win-win as it gets!

[#2]

Any ideas for how to properly dispose of/recycle a large projection TV in Houston, TX? Thanks

[#3]

Hi Wcaesar,

Thanks for reaching out to us on this. We do offer haul-away service on large TVs for $100, and to get this setup just go to your local Best Buy store. I hope this helps.

Thanks,