Getting a new mobile phone should bring with it plenty of joy and general feelings of awesomeness – but there’s also the sad goodbye we have to make to our old handset. If it’s in good condition, you can always reuse it as a spare, or pass it on to a relative or friend – but we’re not always able to make that choice. So when we’re done with a handset (18m last year) we all too often just throw them away. Only 20% of phones were recycled last year, which means the rest are now cluttering landfills, or gathering dust in the bottom of our drawers.

Luckily mobile recycling is on the rise and there are now a range of schemes to help your pocket as well as the environment. The Guardian reports on a new service that has just launched:

The Coolafone website converts old phones into “coolacredits” which can then be exchanged for e-vouchers which can be redeemed with a range of “Coolapartners” including boutique hotels, food companies and magazine publishers. Donators can also choose to have money given to charity.

And it’s not the only one out there – especially if you’d like a charity to benefit:

An alternative to profiting yourself from recycling an old handset is to pass on any value to a good cause. Many charities, both large and small, have teamed up with specialist processing organisations such as Greener Solutions (greenersolutions.co.uk) and the Recycling Appeal (recyclingappeal.com) to collect old mobiles for refurbishment or recycling.

Recycling or refurbishing – either way, we win. Recycling is great for two reasons – firstly it mean the valuable chemicals and metals inside your phone can be put to good use again, making future mobiles cheaper and greener to produce. Secondly it means that they won’t ever contaminate the environment – while your phone may safely contain them now, that might not be the case in 100 years time if in landfill.

If a phone can be refurbished, where does it go? Often it goes to people in the developing world – giving them a chance to use a technology that would be otherwise inaccessible to the majority of the local population. And with that comes opportunities to connect, grow your business, stay in touch with loved ones or many of the other possibilities.

So the next time you have to replace or discard your mobile, don’t just throw it away – there are plenty of ways to pass it on to others or dispose of it safely and responsibly, and you might even pocket a bit yourself while you’re at it!