Corporate mobile phone recycling is now big business, with second hand phones commanding high prices but users need to be aware of the personal and sensitive data these phones hold and must be disposed of sensibly.

Corporate and Business users must adhere to both data protection laws as well as the WEEE directive and must ensure that overwriting takes place to delete all personal data from their handsets before selling or recycling mobile phones.

Mobile recycling generates a range of materials including metals, plastics and several valuable components – such as silver – which can be extracted and re-used.

Concept’s phone recycling process means that we recover and re-use various parts from phones and their accessories. Parts recovery may include:

For peace of mind, remove your personal data

If you are recycling phones, then it’s up to you to make sure your personal data has been, or will be, removed from your mobile phone. Take care of your personal data and reduce the risk of it being used by someone else.

Getting your smartphone ready to sell isn’t as straightforward as it was when phones were simpler. Backing-up contacts, photos and deleting messages is one thing, but you’ll also want to disconnect your online accounts and wipe any digital trace of yourself from the device.

Backup your phone, depending on the type of phone you have, you can use your phone’s own cloud backup feature, or connect it to a computer and use your phone manufacturer’s software.

Android

If you’ve enabled syncing, your contacts, photos and data may be backed up – but you’ll need to check. Go to Settings, Sync, and check if any items are set to be backed-up (or just backup everything here now). If you get a new Android phone, you can transfer contacts, calendar, Drive, and other settings to it from your Google account.

Using a PC instead? Check your phone manufacturer’s website for the correct software to install. If you’re on a Mac and find there’s no software, installing Android File Transfer will let you access many files.

iPhone

Apple’s own cloud service, iCloud, is even easier to use and will quite possibly have already backed-up much of your data and photos automatically. However, to transfer specific settings for apps via iCloud you might have to manually enable it.

First go to Settings, iCloud and move across the sliders so that everything you want to backup is green. Then tap the Storage & Backup option, enable iCloud Backup via the slider (if you haven’t already) and tap Back up now to fully backup everything you selected on the previous page.

Using a computer instead? Use iTunes but disable its ‘sync’ option before connecting your phone to avoid accidentally wiping anything before it’s been backed-up (syncing will ‘re-image’ it to the last-known state).

Make a note of your apps, it’s worth noting these, as you’ll likely be getting a new mobile and want to continue using them. There’s a chance some won’t be available if you’re moving to a newer OS version of the same platform, or between OS platforms. Otherwise, installing apps on the same platform is a breeze, and iTunes and Google Play accounts remember what you’ve downloaded previously so you can simply log-in to the app store, locate this list and reinstall apps from there.

If you’ve backed up your old iPhone via iCloud, you should find that your new iPhone synchronises with the very same data and resembles your old iPhone down to the last app.

Log out of your accounts, this is sensible to do this for all apps and accounts, especially any you access through automated passwords. This could be anything from email to iTunes accounts. You should also deauthorise your old phone from the likes of Google Play Music and iTunes which you can do by logging into your account via a PC. For iTunes, this ensures that any purchased digital media won’t be locked to that device.

Perform a factory reset, even though phones don’t contain a data-retaining hard drive. However, it might be the case that on Android phones especially, a ‘factory reset’ is not quite sufficient to entirely wipe your data. To help protect yourself completely, the best solution is to use a company like Concept who offer best phone recycling for both old and new.

Best phone recycling practices mean that all corporate companies and other organisations can benefit from recycling all types of mobile telephones regardless of condition, age, working, broken and generate revenues by cashing in, on assets they no longer need yet still maintaining data integrity.

Concept are the Nation’s number one for corporate mobile recycling and can deal with all aspects of generating revenues against complete data security.

Concept offers the UK’s leading and most comprehensive corporate mobile phone recycling service. We provide a free of charge, nationwide mobile phone collection and provide a dedicated account manager to help you manage recovery, collection and management of your devices.

Concept are specialist in IT asset disposal and can help all types of companies deal with the implications of retiring mobile phone estates. Concept has been in the mobile phone recycling business for over ten years and we can recycle one or a thousand devices and can provide a service that meets and exceeds the ICO guidelines. We understand the importance of securely handling mobile phone devices and safely removing any sensitive information by wiping data from every phone we collect.

Concept are unrivaled with the accreditation we hold and are one of few UK WEEE recycling providers to hold multiple ISO accreditation and numerous waste carrier licenses awarded by the Environment Agency that guarantee our clients quality and environmental excellence at every stage, please take a look at our accreditation’ page.

Concept provide free UK wide collection and collect and recover all mobile phones, smart phone and phone accessories including hands-free car kits, data transfer leads and bluetooth devices free of charge from any location.

Call our corporate recycling team on 01204 363184 to discuss your mobile phone recycling requirements and we will schedule a convenient collection time and date.

We provide Comprehensive mobile phone recycling report which includes full asset reporting for every mobile phone that we collect and recycle. Our reporting covers IMEI numbers, mobile phone descriptions, product value and environmental reporting and most important certificates of destruction.

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