Don't let mobiles go to landfill or gather dust in a drawer! Help recover valuable resources by recycling your used mobile phones and accessories. Simply drop them off at a participating location.
Mobile phones and mobile batteries cannot be recycled in your household recycling bin. Fortunately, MobileMuster has a free recycling program that you can use to help protect our environment and conserve our natural resources.
What is MobileMuster?
MobileMuster is a not-for-profit organisation, managed by the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association, that provides a free mobile phone recycling program in Australia to the highest environmental standard.
MobileMuster is the product stewardship program of the mobile phone industry and is accredited by the Federal Government. That means it is voluntarily funded by all major handset manufacturers (Alcatel, Apple, HMD Global, HTC, Huawei, Google, Motorola, Oppo, Samsung, Vigo Mobile Australia, ZTE) and network carriers (Optus, Telstra, TPG Telecom).
MobileMuster follows the ‘waste hierarchy’, which recommends reusing and repairing products before recycling them. To keep phones and the materials used to make them in use for as long as possible, MobileMuster encourages Australians to repair broken phones before buying new ones and to consider donating or gifting their old mobiles if they still work.
Where do I drop off my phone and accessories?
You can recycle your mobile phones and accessories at any one of the 3,500 MobileMuster public drop-off points. They are located at all local Optus, Telstra, Vodafone and Officeworks stores. Simply ask the staff instore for help.
To find your closest drop-off point, enter your postcode or suburb in the search bar for phones. You can also pick up a free recycling satchel from Australia Post or order one from MobileMuster.
MobileMuster partners with lots of councils, workplaces and repair stores throughout the country to provide the public with as many drop-off points as possible.
Why should I recycle my phone?
Old or broken mobiles should never be put in the rubbish bin as they contain small amounts of potentially hazardous materials that may harm the environment when sent to landfill and that are valuable when recovered.
By recycling, you are reducing the need to extract new materials from the earth and reducing the associated greenhouse gas emissions. Recycling 50,000 mobiles saves 99 tonnes of mineral resources and 19 tonnes of CO2 emissions. To find out how much impact you’re making from recycling your phone visit the MobileMuster Calculator.
What happens to my phone when I recycle it?
When you drop off your mobile phone or post it back for recycling, it’s transported to a recycling facility in Melbourne, Sydney or Brisbane. There the mobiles are sorted and disassembled into components: batteries, printed circuit boards, casings, screens, accessories and packaging. These components are processed separately through shredding, crushing, heating and smelting techniques to maximise resource recovery.
All mobile phone components are recycled to the highest environmental standards. None are refurbished or resold. Over 95% of the plastics and metals that go into making mobiles can be recovered through recycling and used in the production of new products. As an example, the cobalt recovered from mobile phone batteries goes into making new batteries.
Concerned about your personal data when passing on your phone?
All data is destroyed in the recycling process. Find out more about data management.
