Options for Reuse or Recycling of Unwanted Cell Phones
• Lee Ridgway
Many options are available for reuse or disposal of cell phones that are old or that you no longer need.
If your phone is from one of MIT’s preferred vendors, Sprint/Nextel or Verizon Wireless, find out if anyone else in your department can use a cell phone from that vendor. If so, you can have your phone number removed from the device and the service provider can assign a new one. If you don’t find a taker, your administrative officer may want to hold onto the deactivated phone to serve as backup for a lost or broken phone, or to give to a staff member in the future.
If you can’t identify a business need for your unwanted cell phone, consider donating it. There are several donation programs that are linked to charities or that recycle mobile devices in an environmentally responsible way. Choices include
- Community Giving at MIT
- Sprint/Nextel Buyback Program (some phones are eligible for a Sprint account credit)
- Sprint Project Connect
- Verizon Wireless HopeLine
- CollectiveGood Mobile Phone Recycling
To learn more about these programs, go to the Disposal of Cellular Telephones page.
Erase Cell Phone Data!
Before you dispose of your old cell phone, be sure to remove all of your personal information. Wipe it clean of contact names and phone numbers, notes, calendars, documents, and so on.
For instructions, check the device’s user guide or the web site of the manufacturer or the operating system. Terminology will differ, but look for phrases such as “clear storage” (Windows Mobile), “hard reset” (Palm OS), and “data wipe” (BlackBerry).
Another option is to visit Recellular’s web site, with its free Data Eraser tool. The Data Eraser provides instructions for erasing data from most makes and models of cell phones.
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