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Some phones are simply too old, too damaged, or are no longer accepted by recyclers on our site. Instead of letting those phones sit in drawers — or worse, be thrown away — why not feed them to something with a healthy appetite?
Turns out, bacteria have excellent taste in old phones. So we launched the Hungry for Phones initiative in partnership with n2s, an industry leader in sustainable technology disposal, to feed old phones to microbes. Using bioleaching, naturally occurring bacteria help recover the precious metals locked away inside your phone's circuit boards, giving yesterday's technology the chance to become tomorrow's valuable resources.
Any money generated as part of the initiative will go into a prize draw, giving participants the chance to win a share of the funds.
Reuse any packaging you have at home and pay to post your device to Hungry for Phones Initiative at Compare and Recycle: Sterling House, 7 Ashford Road, ME14 5BJ. No rush, 2nd Class postage will do, just use the cheapest postage applicable.
Once we collect enough devices, they will make their way to n2s refinement plant to be hand-dismantled where any data left on devices will be destroyed.
After further refinement, circuit board material is then immersed in tanks full of bacteria solution to extract precious metals.
Through Hungry for Phones initiative, you can recycle vintage, retro, and unsupported phones — even if they no longer work. We’re talking early iPhones and Android smartphones, brick phones and flip phones like Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, BlackBerry and others.
It might surprise you, but mobile phones really do contain gold, palladium and other metals. Not much, just a tiny amount in each phone. According to n2s, 7-12kg of phone printed circuit boards can recover up to 1 gram of gold. Gold is used in mobile phones and other electronics because it’s exceptionally good at conducting electricity and doesn’t corrode over time, making it ideal for circuit boards and connectors.
Your old phone makes a tasty meal for our micro miners, so it only feels fair that you get a little something back.
Every penny this initiative generates from the recycled phones goes into a prize pot, and you can pull up a chair by sending in your phone and registering your email. The more phones we rescue together, the bigger the impact and the bigger the pot, so rope in your family, friends and colleagues and let's clear those drawers together.
