RE programme: between trade-in offer and mobile phone recycling
March 18th, 2024 - 11:30am
March 18th is the World Recycling Day. The perfect opportunity to highlight the need to recycle our old devices. Our electronic waste (or WEEE) is too often crudely dismantled or poorly handled.
This have negative effects on the environment, such as soil and air pollution. This is why it is so important to adopt good practice by going down the responsible digital route, right from the point of purchase. For example, you could opt for a model with an Eco Rating close to 100, or a refurbished or eco-designed product like the Fairphone 5.
Alternatively, and regardless of the model of your mobile, the RE Programme makes it easy to repair your mobile and take it back for reconditioning or recycling. But what happens once the phone has been returned?
Assessing the trade-in value
As an Orange customer, when you return an old mobile phone, you can benefit from a return offer, calculated according to various criteria such as the age or physical condition of your device.
All you have to do is ask one of our shop assistants for advice. One of our Orange shops in Kirchberg is also equipped with a brand new "Panda" machine, which allows you to estimate the value of your phone independently and in just a few minutes.
You can also estimate the value of your smartphone online.
Once the phone has been analysed, a return offer is made, enabling you to make a new purchase at a lower cost. Sometimes the phone is in too poor a condition, so it no longer has any market value and can no longer be reconditioned. However, it can still be recovered and continue its life cycle: it is then sent for recycling.
The stages in mobile phone recycling
Once it has been established that the mobile phone has reached the end of its life, it is taken in charge and sent to a European dismantling Centre. The handset is then dismantled to recover its component materials, and any parts that cannot be reused are recovered for energy purposes. The recycling process is complex but essential, and takes place in several stages:
The first step is to remove the battery. This must absolutely be treated differently because it contains toxic components.
Next, a disintegrator is used. This strange machine is used to open phones mechanically, so that the parts of the device are first separated manually by the operators.
The remaining parts of the phone are then crushed. The grains formed are then sorted, with the aim of recovering the various metals. Various machines are used to facilitate the sorting process: magnets are used to remove the metal particles, and the shredded parts are crushed. Optical sorting using infrared, and X-rays is used to separate other materials such as plastics.
Finally, each material extracted is sent to a recovery circuit for different uses in other industrial sectors.
Ferrous materials can be reused in the construction sector, while plastics and aluminum can be used in the automotive industry to manufacture small parts. Other possible uses include pharmaceuticals and jewelry.
Bringing your phone back for a second life is therefore an economic, ecological, and civic act. With the RE program, everything has been thought out to make this gesture simple and practical. All you have to do is visit one of the Orange shops.