Here’s What to do With Your Old Chargers and Cables (2024)

FAQs

Here’s What to do With Your Old Chargers and Cables? ›

Cables, wires, and cords can be recycled in numerous ways. The best way you can recycle your cables, wires, and cords is by donating them or giving them to someone that will need them. They can also be sold to people that are looking for them.

Cables, wires, and cords can be recycled in numerous ways. The best way you can recycle your cables, wires, and cords is by donating them or giving them to someone that will need them. They can also be sold to people that are looking for them.

You will need to take your cables and chargers to your local recycling centre, here they will have a recycling bin just for electrical products and electronic devices including electrical cables. Once processed the old chargers and cables will be stripped of their components for reuse.

Rather than selling your functional but unwanted chargers, consider donating them to a local charity shop for others to use. Some local authorities also offer curbside collection services for small electrical items. Check with your local council to see if this service is available in your area.

Cables and leads are valuable

Copper, aluminium, even gold are used in cables, leads and wiring. These are precious materials that can be turned into new products.

Cables, wiring and cabling from appliances is classed as waste electrical and electronic equipment. It should never be presented as recycling or put in the general waste. Most manufacturers of appliances also take these back for recycling free of charge. Please see here for information.

Clear cord clutter

You can create a color-coding system, to help you identify the cable by device type or by family member. Once the cables are bundled, place them in bags for storage, again by charger, device type, or person.

Don't bin them

Chargers and cables consist of various plastics, metals and other materials that do not decompose naturally. Polyvinyl chloride – commonly known as PVC – is a plastic that is often used in chargers and cables. It breaks down very slowly, typically taking 30 years or more to degrade.

Lithium-Ion Batteries Cause Fires

Battery chargers can contain lithium-ion batteries, which are sensitive and can start fires when put in the garbage or curbside recycling. Always dispose of rechargeable batteries and devices properly to keep sanitation workers safe.

How to recycle mobile phones. Up to 80% of a phone is recyclable, so don't send it to landfill or leave it in the drawer - recycle it! Mobile phones contain a range of materials including metals, plastics and several valuable components - such as silver - which can be extracted and re-used.

What to do with old Apple cords? ›

Just bring batteries, cords, and old phones into the store and recycle them for free. Don't live near a Best Buy? You can mail them your e-waste. They also have a tool that allows you to calculate whether or not your electronics still have value for trade-in.

The term "E-Waste" is loosely applied to consumer and business electronic equipment like computers, printers, cables, televisions, VCRs, copiers, fax machines, stereos, and electronic games that are no longer wanted. Certain components contain materials that cannot be recycled or make them hazardous.

Recycle at home

Some local authorities accept small electricals as part of their home recycling scheme. If yours does there may be special instructions on how to put them out for collection - for example, place small electrical items in a clear plastic bag tied to your recycling bin.

If you just throw them away in the regular trash, you risk contaminating the air, water and soil with heavy metals and plastics made of a variety of toxic compounds. In most areas, you are required to dispose of wires and cables as electronic waste (e-waste), which means special handling.

Before you toss out, give away or sell that old USB memory stick, make sure you've properly erased your files. A new study finds that two-thirds of used USB thumb drives still had the previous owner's data on them, even though attempts had often been made to delete the files.

Electrical wires and cables contain valuable materials such as copper and aluminum, which are highly recyclable. If you can't reuse them or find someone else who will use them, take your old wires and cables to the nearest e-waste recycling facility.

Capping electrical wires is the safe, code-approved way of dealing with terminated electrical cables. Taping up stray electrical cables and burying them behind drywall is decidedly not the answer. Instead, the answer is to trim, cap, and enclose cables in an accessible surface-flush electrical box.

Yes, you can remove all that coaxial cable and those ethernet wires in your walls and basem*nt. Those wires don't carry electricity and are generally safe to remove.