Your phone is your constant companion, through thick and thin, through knocks and drops. Once you’ve upgraded, you might hand it down, scratches and all, to a friend or lucky younger sibling or child. A few more knocks later, and the phone has reached the end of its life. What happens next?
That’s where Vodacom comes in. As part of their commitment to sustainability, Vodacom has a cellphone recycling programme – and it couldn’t be simpler.
Thousands of phones, broken or obsolete, are lying forgotten in drawers around SA. What people don’t realise is that throwing your phone in the trash is a really bad idea – phones are full of heavy metals that can leach out in landfill into the ground or groundwater.
Some of the elements in a typical cellphone include lead, copper, gold, zinc, cobalt, beryllium, tantalum and coltan. Although there are tiny amounts, it’s enough to make it really important to recycle your phone.
How do I recycle my phone?
It’s easy! All you need to do is bring your old phone to a Vodacom shop. If it’s still working, make sure to do a full Factory Reset to wipe any data. Take it to the Tech or Repair Kiosk, and they’ll send it to Vodacom’s central repair hub in Midrand, Johannesburg. There, the phone is crushed. This is to further protect your private data.
The crushed phone is sent to a registered e-waste recycler, where everything that can be recovered is reused. Vodacom is provided with a certificate to prove it didn’t end up in landfill. That’s it!
You may wonder why Vodacom doesn’t refurbish old phones to sell or donate. There are several reasons for this. Firstly, it’s not cost effective – repairing cellphones can be very expensive so it’s cheaper to donate a new low-cost smartphone or device than fix an old one, whose technology would be outdated anyway. Secondly, Vodacom is committed to protecting its customers’ data, and there is a chance that data could be recovered from a refurbished phone.
One way the Vodacom Foundation helps the wider community is through their Mobile Education Programme, donating resource centres for schools and teachers to improve the quality of education in SA. Read more about their incredible work here.
