What should I do with the replaced phone ? This has always been a difficult problem to solve. I want to sell, but I am worried that my privacy and security will not be guaranteed after I sell it. I want to sell to formal recycling companies, but I don't know which ones are formal companies.

On April 3, the Beijing Municipal Development and Reform Commission announced the first batch of 13 pilot units for the construction of a new recycling system for waste electrical and electronic products, many of which have the business of recycling mobile phones. Through these companies, citizens can safely sell their updated mobile phones and other electronic products. After the announcement of the first batch of lists, is it convenient and safe to sell used mobile phones through these companies? The reporters started to investigate.

A bunch of old mobile phones are pressed at the bottom of the box

If the "Big Brother" mobile phones of the 1990s were only owned by a few people, after entering the new century, there will be one mobile phone per person, or even several mobile phones per person. Since the popularization of smart phones, in the past decade or so, mobile phone users have become more and more frequently replacing new phones.

Xiao Zhang, a citizen who lives outside Guang'anmen, recently took advantage of the opportunity to renovate his house and cleaned up his room. From the big box under the bed, he found all the mobile phones he had used. From the earliest Nokia candy bar phones, to the Samsung flip color screen phones in 2003, to the slider phones in 2007, and later 3G and 4G phones. Since the emergence of smart phones, Xiao Zhang has been changing phones more and more frequently. He has used almost all of HTC, Sony, Apple, and Samsung.

Every mobile phone is a memory. Xiao Zhang is a careful person. Every old phone is packed in a transparent plastic bag. I found out this time and charged it. Many mobile phones can still be turned on. There are still text messages that were reluctant to delete in the past, and old phone numbers that old friends no longer use.

He has never sold an old mobile phone, but it is not that he does not want to sell it. "When changing to a new phone, the old phone is actually quite valuable." Xiao Zhang said, every time he goes to a mobile phone store to buy a new phone, the scalper at the door asks him "Is the old phone sold?" SMS and WeChat records can be used. Through online storage, there is no need to leave the phone in order to leave text messages as in the past, but Xiao Zhang still did not sell it, and he felt unsafe. "Will it be possible that after selling it, like those Hong Kong and Taiwan stars repairing their computers, their personal privacy will be copied and put on the Internet to make people laugh?"

There is a large supermarket near Xiaozhang's house. Next to the shelf of toiletries, TV commercials kept showing "Selling and selling mobile phones, just look for love to recycle." Love Recycling is a company that recycles mobile phones online. Every time he went to the supermarket, Xiao Zhang was almost brainwashed by this advertisement sound. After returning home, he still had the advertisement slogan in his head, and he could almost sing along to the tune. He also moved his mind: "Or go online and sell your old mobile phone."

"Trade-in" mobile phone recycling new way

The recycling of used mobile phones involves both privacy and security issues as well as environmental protection issues. The well-known smartphone manufacturer Apple publishes its annual environmental responsibility report in English every year. In the 2017 annual report, Apple mentioned that for every 100,000 Apple iPhone 6 phones, 1,900 kilograms of aluminum, 800 kilograms of copper, 0.3 kilograms of gold, 7 kilograms of silver, and 55 kilograms of tin may be recycled.