Many people still don’t recycle smartphones or buy used devices, data shows

The smartphone may seem like an enduring symbol of modern human innovation. Microcomputers are now the portals of a whole new world. Now they have artificial intelligence assistants built into them. They did it even to space.

Cell phones have also played a role in harming impressionable youth, fueling a serious mental health problem, and increasing pollution.

According to the World Health OrganizationGlobal waste is the world’s fastest growing waste stream. A record amount of e-waste, 62 million tons to be exact, introduced pollutants, including lead and mercury, into the environment by 2022. Cell phones, computers, and electronics make up the majority of electronics in landfills. The United States built approx 7.2 million tons of e-waste by 2022 and collected about half of it.

Why don’t we come back for more?

You may have heard of the space race, and now the AI ​​race, but have you heard of rare earth mineral race? If not, now is the time.

Most of the world’s modern technology, including smartphones, is powered by only 17 metal elements. They make powerful magnets, lasers, batteries, and more. They are abundant all over the world, but they are becoming more and more difficult for me. That production difficulty has led to political conflict as countries scramble to find large deposits of the rare commodity – and a sense of scarcity. If you drop your phone or let it gather dust in a drawer, these strange worlds stick with it. Basically the theory of confined water, but with much smaller amounts of naturally occurring magnetic elements.

A 2026 CNET survey of readers found that only 39 percent of people had recycled an appliance – a 2024 YouGov poll put that number only seven percent. About one-third of US adults expressed uncertainty about recycling laws and their skepticism, while about a fifth said they just throw it in the trash — dumping ie waste is illegal or regulated in 25 states. An Allstate survey found that more than half of Americans keep their devices on hand as backups.

That behavior creates its own set of problems. According to the United Nations’ Global E-waste Monitor (GEM), the amount of e-waste far exceeds the amount of electronic recycling, and increases by 2.6 million tons every year. By 2024, five times more waste was produced than recycled technology.

And it gets worse: Of the amount of e-waste that is recycled, less than a quarter of it is properly collected and processed, often leading to more waste and pollution. Even if electronics are successfully separated in a complex recycling process, a single device only produces a small amount of rare earth, which means we need a lot more devices in the recycling stream to make a difference.

All of that leads to this fact: Less than one percent of the world’s rare element demand is met by e-waste recycling, leaving most countries to rely on a few powerful countries with large pools of rare earth elements. We need to come up with a better plan, fast.

For years, environmental activists have proposed a very simple solution: Just stop buying so many new electronics. Maintenance programs have risen in popularity among technology companies, giants, even US presidentwhile Right to Repair advocates want laws that will allow more people to extend the life of their personal devices.

But even among these conditions, the number of participants needs to multiply tenfold to deal with the growing problem of e-waste.

While more than one-third of Americans told Allstate they are likely to buy a used or refurbished device, only 18 percent have actually done so. However, teenagers are like that there are many opportunities to buy refurbished devices there are older generations, according to Statista, as they keep older devices. Almost half of Gen Z said they would rather consume than burn to save the planet. A resurgence of nostalgia for Y2K technologies like iPods and cyberdecks — and the desire for devices “built to last” in a struggling economy — may help move the needle.

Phones are our heritage, for better or for worse. What are you going to do about it?