How to recycle or trade in your phone with O2 Recycle

Ever wondered what to do with your old mobile phone? How about trading it in to be recycled? Discover how O2 Recycle is one way that you can potentially earn a bit of extra cash from your unwanted tech, while helping the planet at the same time. Our guide will take a look how phone recycling works, what your old phone may be worth and why many people now choose to recycle their unwanted tech.

If you’re upgrading to a new phone, it can be easy to put your old one at the back of a drawer or cupboard and forget about it. But there could be plenty of life left in the old handset yet. And that’s where phone recycling comes in. There are now many mobile phone recycling companies who’ll pay for an old device. 

You can use what you earn as you see fit. Meanwhile, your old phone is ‘recycled’ – it might be sold as a refurbished phone; donated to charity; or responsibly disposed of, with useful working parts reused for other purposes. By doing so, fewer devices go to landfill and fewer new components need to be manufactured. 

O2 Recycle is our own way of letting you trade in unused phones – as well as tablets, laptops and other tech. In return, you’ll get cash or credit to spend on the things that you love. And it can be a fast and easy way to get rid of any tech clutter in your home. Our service is run in partnership with leading expert Likewize. 

1. Head to O2 Recycle and search for your device on our database of eligible phones, tablets, laptops and consoles. Fill in a few details and we’ll give you an estimate there and then – if you’re happy, complete your order.

2. Prep your device for recycling by backing it up, charging it up and sorting out security.

3. Pop it in the post.

4. We’ll securely wipe your device, and you’ll typically get paid just 3–5 days after we receive it.

5. Your phone will then be resold to someone else or responsibly recycled.

What postage options are there?

• Prepaid label only – You’ll use your own packaging, and we’ll email you a label and QR code. Either print your label at home or get the Post Office to scan the QR code and print it for you.

• Packaging and prepaid label – We’ll send you everything you need to get your device to us.

• Pop into your local O2 store to get your recycling quote, and one of our friendly team members will make sure it gets back to us.

Whichever way you send it, check the right quote reference is included so processing is quick and seamless. Hold onto proof of postage and your tracking number to help track devices in transit.

Retailers and recycling specialists often price devices using a grading system to determine their condition (e.g. A for excellent, B for good). The more pristine the phone, the higher the valuation. We’ve already paid out over £230 million since O2 Recycle began.

To find out how much money you can get, search for your phone model at O2 Recycle to see if it’s eligible for recycling. Select the storage size and provide the IMEI number (in your phone settings). Then, for an instant phone valuation, choose whether it’s in excellent condition, includes some screen damage, or has a few issues. Be sure to provide accurate information to avoid unexpected changes to your final payout, which is determined after it’s sent in and tested. There’s no cooling-off period for recycle arrangements.

If it works perfectly and looks like new, you’ll get the highest trade-in price. A damaged screen and enclosure have the biggest impact on valuation. Here is our condition guide:

O2 Recycle has already saved more than 4 million devices from becoming e-waste. We have a zero-landfill policy, so most phones we receive will be reused, repaired or recycled for parts.

We start by wiping all personal data, so you can rest easy knowing everything’s secure. After that, we give devices a second and third chance by reselling them ourselves as Like New or through our partner, Likewize .

If a device really can’t be reused, we send it to our partner Relove Technology, who make sure every valuable material is extracted and repurposed.