Recycling your smartphone: Stichting AAP

Today I’d like to discuss a great way of recycling I’ve recently discovered. The recycling of phones. That’s because I recently bought a new phone and don’t want to hold on to the old one, it would be a waste of resources. There’s an option to recycle your old phone ánd have positive impact! I did it the past week with 2 old phones. I donated them to Stichting AAP, a Dutch foundation.

Recycling?

Romee writes a positive post about recycling? Well yes. Even though I’ve said many times that recycling is no solution, I am positive about recycling. It’s just that you always need to follow the 5R’s of zero waste. That means that recycling is not the ultimate solution. It’s the 4th in line. You first, refuse, reduce and re-use are first. And when you’ve tried all those other things, then you recycle. Better safe than sorry!

‘Recyling is a great place to start, but it’s a terrible place to stop.’
Unknown

Refuse

I can’t refuse a smart phone these days, I feel like I need one. But I do want to mention something else here. I wrote this post recently, about Fairphone. If you’re looking for a phone and you don’t want to buy secondhand or refurbished, buy the Fairphone. It’s the only modular phone there is and this way you might never have to recycle an old phone ever again. Then you can re-use!

Recycle

Anyway, since I couldn’t refuse a phone in general, couldn’t reduce (I only have one phone haha) and chose not to re-use my old phone (read all about that in the Fairphone post), I am recycling it today. I even had a second phone lying around as a back-up. But since I try to live minimalistic these days I got rid of that one too. A back up-phone for when the current one breaks? Please. It’s a waste of resources when it’s lying around in my house not being used. Did you know there are precious minerals used to make phones? There’s gold in there, such a shame if it’s not being used. If you recycle the gold it’s going back into the supply chain (and then less new gold needs to be minded). The back-up phone was a what-if item. I don’t do what-if anymore. If there’s an emergency people don’t need to call me. Call the emergency services.

Recycling at Stichting AAP

And the recycling part, that’s where stichting AAP comes in. You can sign up at the website and then they’ll send you a special recycling-envelope. You can put all the smart-phones you don’t use into the envelope and turn it in at one of the recycling points in your area (here you can find a list of recycling points). Quite simple! The envelopes are sent to Stichting AAP which works together with stichting Eeko. Stichting Eeko will recycle the phone and the profit they make from that will go to Stichting AAP. This way you can recycle your phone and make a positive impact at the same time! Stichting AAP is a foundation which rescues apes. They gives the apes a future by giving them a home in one of their sanctuaries. At the same time they fight to make laws that improve the lives of apes in general. They don’t want to give shelter to apes but they have to. What they want is enough nature for apes to live in peace (without being hunted etc.). A beautiful cause if you ask me!