Ever wonder what happens to old mobile phones? I didn't, until 02 called and asked if I had any to recycle. And then they said they could track the phone and see where it ended up.
Africa? Eastern Europe? Or most likely somewhere in the UK. I like the idea of the phone being gussied up, and given a new life, and not in a box in our attic gathering dust.
If you remember, I got the iPhone4 as soon as they came out. Unfortunately I shattered it just a week after getting it! I was too cheap to fix it, and used it for nearly 18 months, held together with cello tape! I was pretty proud of that.
So I went to O2 Recycle to see how much my old phone was worth. I was pleasantly surprised to see the site estimated I would get £210.00 for recycing my phone. I expect it will be slightly less than this given the smashed back, but golly gee, that is a lot. Scottish hubby is really excited, and has got out all our old phones to see how much they are worth.
I filled in all the info on the site and off went my little smashed iPhone, to the recycle center in Scotland, to be fixed and sent off to a new home. I wonder where she will end up?
Of course, I was very worried about getting all personal information off the phone before I sent it off. O2 kindly passed on the steps to remove all content from an iPhone prior to disposal:
1) Make sure you have copied everything you need from the iPhone (e.g. by backing up using iTunes)
2) Make sure the iPhone is fully charged
3) Select "Erase All Content and Settings" in Settings > General > Reset (for more background see: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2110)
The time needed for Step 3 depends on the phone model – for our iPhone 4 it only took a few minutes.
So off went my old iPhone. I miss her already. Where will she end up? Does she miss me? I'm glad she is going to Scotland first ... where she can wave at my inlaws!
Stayed tuned for the next installment ... on what happens to my iPhone and her final destination.
