Circular economy Why recycling is more than just separating waste

Attention raw material detectives: Unused smartphones contain valuable materials. International Recycling Day on March 18 invites you to search for clues.

Whether we separate our household waste or store at a second-hand store: Recycling is part of our everyday lives, and for good reason.

Disposing of used materials properly and buying recycled products conserves resources and helps to protect the environment.

Recycling means collecting used materials, sorting them and processing them so that they can be used again in production. This saves energy, reduces waste - and is even the subject of an international day of action.

March 18 is International Recycling Day

To raise awareness of recycling and environmental protection, the Global Recycling Foundation launched International Recycling Day in 2018. The day takes place on March 18. Last year, over 200 municipalities, schools and companies across Switzerland took part with various campaigns.

If you want to get active yourself, you can take part in cell phone collection campaigns, for example: In addition to used glass, clothing and plastic, unused and defective smartphones can also be recycled. This "electronic waste" actually contains real treasures.

Processing industrySwiss collect 3.1 million tons of recycled materials per year

Swiss households are a real treasure trove of smartphones that can be repaired or whose materials can be recycled. The devices contain valuable raw materials such as gold, cobalt or lithium, the mining of which causes high CO₂ emissions.

At Swisscom, such unused smartphones can be placed in collection boxes and donated to Mobile Aid or sold.

Circular economy: how it works

Swisscom recycles smartphones depending on the condition of the device. Once they have been handed in, Swisscom tests and repairs broken devices, deletes the personal data and returns them to the cycle or disposes of them properly.

With the Swisscom Mobile Aid program, the company donates the proceeds from refurbished cell phones and the recycling of raw materials to children in need.

The circular economy means using resources for as long as possible by reusing, recycling and repairing them and keeping them in closed material cycles instead of disposing of them after a single use. You too can get involved in the circular economy - on Recycling Day and every other day.