Decluttr is a trade-in initiative in which consumers can buy and sell secondhand tech, helping them to save money and cut electronic waste (e-waste).
How does Decluttr work?
Decluttr pays consumers to recycle old media and tech devices, including CDs, DVDs, video game consoles, and even broken phones.
The company then sells these secondhand items on its web shop. Broken phones and laptops are refurbished and sold for a cheaper price.
To find out how much you could get for your old tech, first input your device's make, model, and condition into Decluttr's free valuation tool. Decluttr locks its first price offer for 28 days to give you time to find a suitable upgrade.
CDs and DVDs are searchable in the valuation tool using their barcode.
Once you have accepted the price offer, Decluttr will send a free shipping label to package and send your item.
You'll receive payment once your item has been processed, either by PayPal or bank transfer. Or, you can choose to make a donation to charity.
Why should I use Decluttr?
All across the globe, people are struggling to work out what to do with their old tech.
In the U.K., more than half of residents surveyed are hanging on to a defunct charger or laptop. In the EU, of the 74 electronic products that each typical household owns, 13 are gathering dust in cupboards and drawers.
Holding on to old tech may seem relatively harmless, but it actually puts further pressure on our planet's rapidly depleting metal reserves.
Phones, laptops, batteries, and other tech use precious metals like gold, lithium, and cobalt to function. These are finite resources and, in some cases, have been linked to environmental or human rights abuses.
We're often sitting on a literal gold mine when we keep our old devices, which could instead be recycled to reduce the need to mine new metals.
The problem worsens if those electronic devices find their way from our homes into general waste, which around a third of us are guilty of in North America and Europe.
When those precious metals in our old devices start to break down, they can leach toxins into the surrounding groundwater, which poisons the local wildlife — and, in worst cases, could impact our water supplies.
E-waste makes up a small fraction of the garbage sent to landfills, yet it is responsible for 70% of our toxic waste. If we recycled it instead, we could wipe out enormous amounts of hazardous waste.
Are there similar programs to Decluttr?
Target and Best Buy have trade-in programs that will give you store credit for your old electronics, including phones, tablets, video game consoles, and smartwatches.
Other programs include Nikon's, which buys and sells old cameras, and GameStop, which trades brand-new games for old electronics.
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