Let’s be honest: somewhere in your home—maybe in that drawer you pretend you’ll organize “this weekend,” maybe in a shoebox behind the winter coats you forgot you own—there is a dusty herd of old phones and laptops you’ve ghosted harder than that one coworker who wanted to “circle back.” They sit there silently, collecting dead skin cells and judgement, waiting for the day you finally admit you’re never going to “use it as a backup.”
In Australia, this digital purgatory isn’t just a meme—it’s a national sport. The average Australian generates 22 kilograms of e-waste every year. That’s nearly the weight of a toddler, or half a suitcase, or one aggressively enthusiastic kelpie. Multiply that by millions of people and congratulations: we’ve all built a collective Mount Doom of forgotten gadgets.
And it’s not just Australia. Globally we crank out 62 million tonnes of e-waste a year. By 2030? Try 82 million tonnes, because nothing says “advanced civilization” like turning the planet into a glittery trash heap of cracked screens, tangled USB cables, and printers that never worked in the first place.
So today’s mission is simple: let’s walk through how to responsibly recycle your unwanted electronics—with good humor, gentle self-dragging, and hopefully none of the guilt you usually feel when you walk past an electronics recycling bin and pretend you don’t see it.
Because yes, recycling e-waste is a tiny bit more complicated than yeeting it into the yellow bin. No, you cannot throw your old Nokia in the regular rubbish. And yes, that laptop from 2011 containing 168 blurry photos of your dog needs to be dealt with.
So buckle up. It’s time to declutter your digital skeletons.
1. The Secret Life of Your Electronics (Or: Why They Love Drama)
Before we dive into recycling tips, let’s take a moment to appreciate just how dramatic your electronics really are.
Every phone, laptop, and smartwatch is basically a diva born from a high-stakes mining operation, shaped by manufacturing wizardry, and shipped halfway around the world just so you can drop it in the bathtub eight months later. It takes time, fossil fuels, raw materials, and the collective patience of every engineer alive to make the tech you casually upgrade because the new model comes in “midnight plum.”
So when these items end up abandoned in your drawer or—worse—in landfill, it’s not just sad. It’s a tiny tragedy with environmental consequences big enough to give the Earth heartburn.
We’re talking toxic metals, chemicals, plastics, rare earth elements—and none of them break down beautifully like a biodegradable fork or your willpower around pastries. Electronics rot badly. The planet deserves better.
And honestly? So do you.
2. The Australian Digital Hoard: 23 Million Phones Just Relaxing in Drawers
Let’s look at the numbers.
There are 23 million mobile phones lounging idly in drawers around Australia. Thirteen million of those don’t even turn on. That means millions of people said, “I’ll deal with that later,” and then never did, because later became never and never became always and now here we are.
This is the vibe across the entire e-waste landscape.
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Broken laptops kept “for parts.”
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Tablets with screens so shattered they resemble modern art.
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Printers that died mid-document and were banished in rage.
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Chargers from devices you don’t even remember owning.
Congratulations—you are part of a national exhibition called Unintentional Electronic Collectors: The Pop-Up Museum No One Asked For.
3. The Good News: E-Waste Is Actually Valuable (Seriously)
Now here’s a twist: all that crap you’ve been ignoring? It’s actually valuable.
Anne Stonier of the Australia New Zealand Recycling Platform calls e-waste the fastest-growing and most valuable waste stream. Inside your dead devices are metals, plastics, and materials that can be reused—creating a more circular economy instead of a “straight to landfill, no detours, no shame” economy.
So recycling isn’t just about being a responsible adult. It’s about unlocking the hidden treasure in your pile of retired gadgets.
Kind of like Marie Kondo meets a scrapyard.
4. Step One: Stop Throwing Electronics in the Wrong Bin
This feels obvious, but clearly it is not. So let’s make it plain:
Your old phone does not go in the yellow bin.
Your laptop does not go in the red bin.
Your dead AirPods do not go “wherever feels right in the moment.”
Some states—VIC, SA, WA—have outright banned e-waste from landfill. Why? Because tossing electronics in regular garbage is the environmental equivalent of microwaving aluminum foil.
The fix? You need an actual e-waste recycling program.
5. Step Two: Find Recycling Programs That Actually Exist (Yes, They’re Real)
Good news: you’re spoiled for choice.
Local councils
Your council probably has designated e-waste drop-off points. You know, those mysterious fenced areas near depots you’ve always assumed were off-limits? Turns out they’re for you.
Officeworks
The quiet overachiever of e-waste recycling. They accept:
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Batteries
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Computer accessories
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Printer cartridges
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Mobile phones
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(And during special drop-off days) basically everything short of your emotional baggage
Bunnings
Come for a sausage sizzle, leave with a lighter conscience. They accept:
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Batteries
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TVs
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Screens
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Computers
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Printers
And—just guessing—you’ll probably walk out with three plants you didn’t need.
MobileMuster
The telecom industry’s attempt to clean up after itself. They accept pretty much any communication device except maybe two tin cans tied together with string.
They’ll take:
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Phones
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Smartwatches
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Speakers
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Modems
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Routers
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TV streaming devices
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Landline phones
Basically anything you’ve ever used to avoid talking to people.
Device manufacturer trade-ins
Apple, Samsung, Dell, HP—they all offer trade-in programs. Discounts, credits, sometimes even cash.
Yes, this is how they enable your upgrade addiction.
No, you shouldn’t judge yourself.
Charities accepting devices
Some nonprofits will lovingly rehabilitate your abandoned tech like it’s an injured baby bird.
DV Safe Phone, The Reconnect Project, and others clean up, repair, and donate devices to people who genuinely need them.
Your old phone can literally change a life—which is more than it’s doing in the drawer next to your expired batteries and mystery keys.
6. Step Three: Protect Your Data Like the Overcaffeinated Cybersecurity Champion You Were Meant to Be
Now let’s talk about the digital skeletons inside your gadgets.
Phones and computers know everything about you:
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Your selfies (all 6,842 of them)
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Your embarrassingly titled playlists
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Your saved passwords
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Your grocery list with the oddly specific cheese categories
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Your entire photo archive of meals you never actually cooked
Before recycling, you need to erase all that.
The Basics:
Back up whatever you want to keep.
Cloud storage, external drive, USB stick—whatever works.
Remove physical identifiers.
Stickers, engravings, labels—especially the ones from 2016 that you’re embarrassed to have liked.
Factory reset everything.
Phones, tablets, watches, laptops, streaming sticks, routers, printers (yes printers—they store recent documents).
Unpair your devices.
Because nothing is more awkward than your old cracked phone randomly pinging your new laptop from beyond the grave.
What if the device won’t turn on?
Do what you can:
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Remove memory cards
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Remove SIM cards
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Remove detachable storage
If it’s fully bricked, shrug and recycle. The past is the past.
7. Step Four: What If Your Device Contains Super Sensitive Material?
If your device contains Very Serious Things—financial records, business data, political secrets, extremely niche Google searches—you have additional options.
What NOT to do:
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Don’t drill through a hard drive
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Don’t smash it with a hammer
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Don’t set it on fire
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Don’t microwave it
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Actually don’t physically destroy anything
Not only is it dangerous (especially with batteries), but it also defeats the point of recycling.
Real options that don’t involve hardware homicide:
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Reformat the drive
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Encrypt the drive
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Use proper data sanitisation software
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Use a certified data destruction service
Some recyclers even offer secure wiping as part of their service. Easy, safe, and far less dramatic.
8. Step Five: What Happens If You Don’t Do Any of This?
Nothing good.
If your device still contains personal info, you could face:
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Identity theft
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Privacy breaches
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Someone discovering your secret Pinterest boards
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Mild but avoidable chaos
Now, realistically, most criminals aren’t pawing through landfill searching for your 2014 tax return. They’re looking for low-hanging fruit. That means:
If you take even basic steps, you’re already safer than a surprising number of people.
But leaving personal data on a device you recycle? Not ideal.
Do the reset. It takes five minutes. You’ve wasted far more time on apps you can’t admit you still use.
9. Bonus: Stop Hoarding Cables Like They’re Rare Collectibles
It’s time to confront the Cable Drawer.
You know the one:
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17 micro-USB cords
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4 power bricks for devices you do not own
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A mysterious spaghetti of Ethernet cables
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A charger for a Nokia from 2003
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A tangle monster so cursed it deserves its own horror movie
Here’s the solution:
Recycle them.
Cables are e-waste. Many programs accept them. And no, you will not need that one random dongle someday. That’s a lie your brain tells you.
10. Bonus Bonus: Resist the Mythical “Backup Phone That Never Gets Used”
Everyone has said at some point:
“I’ll keep this old phone as a backup.”
You won’t.
You never will.
It’s the “gym membership of electronics.”
11. Let’s End With Some Tough Love
You are not a museum curator.
Your home is not the Smithsonian of Dead Electronics.
You do not need to keep:
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A laptop from the Julia Gillard era
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Five phones that enter seizure mode when plugged in
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A drawer full of SIM cards like you're running a spy operation
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A GoPro with sand still in it from that one snorkeling tour
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A smartwatch that gave up halfway through a 10K because it hated you personally
Let it go. Recycle responsibly. Become the eco-hero your compost bin already thinks you are.
12. So Here’s the Final Step: Go Do It
Round up your forgotten gadgets.
Choose a recycling program.
Wipe your data.
Drop them off.
Feel a smug, sustainable glow deep in your soul.
You’ll be reducing landfill, protecting your privacy, and contributing to a circular economy that doesn’t run the planet into an early grave.
Plus, you’ll get your drawer space back. Imagine what you could do with all that room—store snacks, hide birthday presents, or create yet another junk drawer. Baby steps.