How to trade in your old phone with O2 and save the world

O2 have been running their ‘O2 Recycle‘ scheme for ten years now and claim to have recycled three million devices. Here’s how you can make the most of the scheme and recycle your old phone. 

Importantly, you don’t have to be on O2 to trade in a phone with them. So how do you trade your old phone in? Just follow the below steps.

• First, visit O2recylcle.co.uk (or an O2 branch).
• Fill in the details of the device you want to trade in, in the fields provided, including make and model.
• Wait for O2 to check your device info and confirm the trade.
• Get paid on the same day.

Recycling phones, whether back into the market, or for their components, is certainly something that should be encouraged as the old handsets contain many rare and precious materials that can be reused.

O2 moved to make its whole business more environmentally friendly and it’s an important step, given that modern consumers are more and more environmentally conscious themselves. O2 gave us the rundown on its environmental achievements in a recent blog post. Here’s what it says it has done so far…

• Made O2 Recycle a built-in part of the online upgrade process. So when customers are ready to upgrade to a new device, they’re automatically directed to O2 Recycle.
• Paid out a total of £226 million to UK customers trading in their devices. Offering cash-back towards a new device means customers don’t need to compromise on being environmentally conscious if they want the latest handset.
• Ensured that O2 Recycle complements O2 Refresh and O2 Custom Plans. So all our customers can use the value of their old device to get the handset they want.

So, if you’re looking at upgrading an O2 phone, or switching to O2, it’s worth checking out their recycle options (and as this outlines, they will be automatically presented to you). Even if you’re not a budding eco warrior, you can save some money on your new device.

O2 say 95% of the devices they receive via their recycling scheme are in good condition and are sold back into the market, rather than being thrown away and ending up in landfill, as so many phones do.

Related: Best phone 2019

Nicola Green, O2’s Director of Communications, wrote on the company’s blog about the importance of environmentally conscious business: “It’s always been important to us at O2 to help people make the most of what new phones have to offer. But we also know we have another responsibility. A responsibility to do the right thing for the planet, and for our customers.

“At my house, recycling’s become a part of our day-to-day. Our Smart Meter’s changed the way we use electricity… We cook smarter so there’s less food waste, and we’re trying our best to use less plastic whenever we can…  Ten years ago, an O2 customer recycled the very first phone under our newly launched O2 Recycle scheme. Today, over three million devices later, our customers and the environment are still reaping the benefits.”