How you can use old devices to make money and protect the planet

Three Ireland has launched a device trade-in initiative, ThreeRecycle, which gives people the opportunity to get money back from old mobile phones, tablets and electronic wearables.

It’s open to both Three customers and non-Three customers. By visiting Three’s online trade-in portal, owners can assess if their old device retains any value before sending it off by post and receiving payment direct to their bank account. Those looking to recycle a device with no residual monetary value can also do so responsibly – and at no charge – through Three’s online partnership with Fonua, a provider of specialist supply-chain solutions to the mobile phone industry.

The trade-in initiative allows both Three customers and non-Three customers to send devices and wearables to Three, to help reduce waste and support the circular economy by allowing these devices and their valuable components to be reused.

Eco-Sims

Three Ireland is continuing its commitment to sustainability with the launch of eco-Sims. Instead of traditional plastic, these Sim cards are made from recycled polystyrene waste from old fridges, leading to a 40 per cent reduction in carbon production. The eco-friendly Sims will become available from June of this year, gradually phasing out the use of regular Sim cards from the market.

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Both initiatives are part of Three’s wider sustainability agenda. Through its parent company CK Hutchison Group Telecom, it has also set science-based targets in a bid to tackle climate change.

The launch of Three Ireland’s device trade-in initiative will have a real and tangible impact on reducing handset and technology waste, says Derval O’Brien, sustainability manager for Three Ireland and Three UK. “This scheme will see devices and materials reused for future products, which will in turn support the delivery of Three’s circular targets,” she says.

Being a “dynamic sustainable” business is a key focus for the company, which has 3.7 million customers in Ireland, says O’Brien. The initiatives are a way of putting its sustainability strategy into action. “Eco-Sims are an opportunity to give a fridge a second life as a Sim card. That’s cool – no pun intended,” she adds.

Recycling your old devices couldn’t be easier, with up to €600 available in cash back. “You just go to our website, three.ie, and answer a few questions to identify the device, which can be a phone, a tablet or a wearable device, to get an estimate of the value of it depending on age, damage and so on,” says O’Brien. “Then you can send it by post to be examined and be paid directly to your bank account.

‘A second life’

“If you have devices that are not worth anything financially they can still be worth a lot in terms of the environment, in which case we will send it on to our partner Fonua. It’s all about working with our partners to give devices a second life.”

Even if something is not obviously reusable, the precious components, including metals and minerals, can be retrieved from them. “Around 90 per cent of the environmental impact of a phone comes from its production, not from its use,” O’Brien explains. “So what we want to do is maximise that 90 per cent as much as possible. Some of the elements used in the making of devices are predicted to run out in the next 100 years.”

Old devices are called electronic waste or e-waste, but whichever term you use it’s a misnomer, O’Brien says. “It’s really a resource,” she points out. “Currently it is estimated that humans globally produce 50 million tonnes of e-waste a year. That’s equivalent to 4,500 Eiffel Towers of e-waste annually.”

And that’s only those that are disposed of. Many old devices are simply gathering dust on shelves and in drawers. “They are called hibernating devices and in 2019 it was estimated that there are around 700 million of them in the EU,” O’Brien says. “We want to encourage people, both customers and non-customers, to go on to the website and have those hibernating devices valued.”

O’Brien says Three recognises the importance to people of climate action. “We know that everyone wants to play their part and this is a way of helping them to do that,” she says.

Find out what your old device is worth