4 ms·

My gut says it's higher since I would expect people who care about replacing batteries also care about recycling the old ones. Why do you think it's way lower?

jl6 4y ago
The example I’m thinking of is when I sat next to someone in an airport who had just bought some garbage-tier “Samsung compatible” replacement battery from the duty free shop, for his garbage-tier phone. He popped in the new battery and tossed the old one in the trash. Meanwhile, I know loads of people who have traded in, or simply handed in, their old iPhones in an Apple Store. I can’t imagine anyone casually tossing an old iPhone in the trash the way my feckless bench-neighbour did.
- 908B64B197 4y ago
  > Meanwhile, I know loads of people who have traded in, or simply handed in, their old iPhones in an Apple Store. I can’t imagine anyone casually tossing an old iPhone in the trash the way my feckless bench-neighbour did. Or just get the battery replaced at the Apple Store and keep using your phone an extra year or two. It's even cheaper than buying a new phone!
- madeofpalk 4y ago
  I mean, it is at the airport. People function a lot different when travelling. I don't think there's much to an extrapolate out of regular behaviour from that observation.
- KronisLV 4y ago
  > ...for his garbage-tier phone. As someone with an arguably garbage-tier phone, sans replaceable battery, I don't think anyone would let me trade it in for a new one or even some sort of a discount, because there isn't a name like Apple behind it, nor the support network. My previous phone that had replaceable batteries has two in total that I occasionally charge, so it can act as a temporary backup if anything happens to my current phone. At least once those are used up and no longer hold any sort of a charge, I'll be able to dispose of them in the supermarket battery collection point or something like that. I'm not sure whether I'd want to cram my current phone in there with its memory chips intact. I guess there are a lot of factors to consider, whether people can afford a certain device or whether they care about disposing of certain types of items responsibly being some of them. Some of this probably varies based on the region of the world as well.
- das-hinterland 4y ago
  [flagged]
  - kalleboo 4y ago
    > most legit battery shops will recycle the old battery for free Will they recycle it, or take it and send it to Asia where it ends up in a landfill anyway?
  - misnome 4y ago
    I don’t know when you last travelled, but many airports are quite big and have more than one shop. It also might shock you to hear that other countries also have airports. People might also have bought phones in the past, so they might not be considered top-of-the-line any more.
  - kitsunesoba 4y ago
    > Does Samsung even make "garbage tier" phones? Some of their lowest end models, between their incredibly weak hardware and huge load of preinstalled crapware (some of which runs in the background), are pretty terrible user experiences. I hesitate to use the term “garbage tier” because it’s needlessly acerbic but it wouldn’t be an inaccurate descriptor.
- kalleboo 4y ago
  I don't even know where I would be able to properly dispose of/recycle a Li-ion battery. City recycling only takes non-rechargeable batteries, and the drop box at the electronics store only takes whole devices with internal batteries (like shavers)
  - somehnguy 4y ago
    In general any big box store that sells devices containing lion/lipo batteries will also have a recycling point for them. I can't remember if there is an actual law governing that, but I assume it isn't out of the goodness of the corporations hearts. Stores like Home Depot, Lowes, Walmart, Wegmans, Target, etc all have boxes you can drop bare lithium battery cells into. Usually right at the front of the store tucked off to the side somewhere. They usually have bags provided at the box to put the cells into. I deal with a lot of lipo batteries & don't want to be responsible for a fire, so I usually electrical tape the +/- terminals before dropping off as well.
    - kalleboo 4y ago
      I don't live in the US so it may be different but the big box stores near me all have signs on their dropboxes saying you can throw devices with internal batteries but not loose batteries
      - somehnguy 4y ago
        Wrap it in tape with an LED attached. Now it’s a device with internal battery, problem solved :) Some hobby shops do nearly exactly this to get around import restrictions. Whether it’s inside something or not it’s still a lipo battery, imo it’s a silly rule and worth breaking.
- freeone3000 4y ago
  Apple offers a financial incentive to trade in your old iPhone. That is the pure reason. And you have to say, tossing out the battery is much better than tossing out the entire phone, battery and all
  - misnome 4y ago
    > Apple offers a financial incentive to trade in your old iPhone. That is the pure reason. Is that… a bad thing?
    - freeone3000 4y ago
      It’s not likely to be offered for random $200 phones.
orf 4y ago
User replaceable batteries also covers “any old phone repair shop”. It’s quite possible that the aggregate recycling rates of these are not great.
- safety1st 4y ago
  If you want to achieve a very high battery recycling rate: * Mandate that batteries be replaceable * Mandate that repair shops recycle used batteries rather than throw them away Mandates on consumers don't mean much because they're hard to enforce, but mandates on businesses are much easier. The consumer will come into the shop to get a new battery installed and drop off the old battery for recycling in the process. Maybe throw in a trade-in rebate for the repair shops or something to seal the deal.
  - danaris 4y ago
    You need to go a step further: * Mandate that the companies/organizations that claim to recycle batteries actually recycle them, with severe penalties for the ones that bid low and then just send the batteries to a landfill in another country.

jl6 4y ago

The example I’m thinking of is when I sat next to someone in an airport who had just bought some garbage-tier “Samsung compatible” replacement battery from the duty free shop, for his garbage-tier phone. He popped in the new battery and tossed the old one in the trash. Meanwhile, I know loads of people who have traded in, or simply handed in, their old iPhones in an Apple Store. I can’t imagine anyone casually tossing an old iPhone in the trash the way my feckless bench-neighbour did.

908B64B197 4y ago
> Meanwhile, I know loads of people who have traded in, or simply handed in, their old iPhones in an Apple Store. I can’t imagine anyone casually tossing an old iPhone in the trash the way my feckless bench-neighbour did. Or just get the battery replaced at the Apple Store and keep using your phone an extra year or two. It's even cheaper than buying a new phone!
madeofpalk 4y ago
I mean, it is at the airport. People function a lot different when travelling. I don't think there's much to an extrapolate out of regular behaviour from that observation.
KronisLV 4y ago
> ...for his garbage-tier phone. As someone with an arguably garbage-tier phone, sans replaceable battery, I don't think anyone would let me trade it in for a new one or even some sort of a discount, because there isn't a name like Apple behind it, nor the support network. My previous phone that had replaceable batteries has two in total that I occasionally charge, so it can act as a temporary backup if anything happens to my current phone. At least once those are used up and no longer hold any sort of a charge, I'll be able to dispose of them in the supermarket battery collection point or something like that. I'm not sure whether I'd want to cram my current phone in there with its memory chips intact. I guess there are a lot of factors to consider, whether people can afford a certain device or whether they care about disposing of certain types of items responsibly being some of them. Some of this probably varies based on the region of the world as well.
das-hinterland 4y ago
[flagged]
- kalleboo 4y ago
  > most legit battery shops will recycle the old battery for free Will they recycle it, or take it and send it to Asia where it ends up in a landfill anyway?
- misnome 4y ago
  I don’t know when you last travelled, but many airports are quite big and have more than one shop. It also might shock you to hear that other countries also have airports. People might also have bought phones in the past, so they might not be considered top-of-the-line any more.
- kitsunesoba 4y ago
  > Does Samsung even make "garbage tier" phones? Some of their lowest end models, between their incredibly weak hardware and huge load of preinstalled crapware (some of which runs in the background), are pretty terrible user experiences. I hesitate to use the term “garbage tier” because it’s needlessly acerbic but it wouldn’t be an inaccurate descriptor.
kalleboo 4y ago
I don't even know where I would be able to properly dispose of/recycle a Li-ion battery. City recycling only takes non-rechargeable batteries, and the drop box at the electronics store only takes whole devices with internal batteries (like shavers)
- somehnguy 4y ago
  In general any big box store that sells devices containing lion/lipo batteries will also have a recycling point for them. I can't remember if there is an actual law governing that, but I assume it isn't out of the goodness of the corporations hearts. Stores like Home Depot, Lowes, Walmart, Wegmans, Target, etc all have boxes you can drop bare lithium battery cells into. Usually right at the front of the store tucked off to the side somewhere. They usually have bags provided at the box to put the cells into. I deal with a lot of lipo batteries & don't want to be responsible for a fire, so I usually electrical tape the +/- terminals before dropping off as well.
  - kalleboo 4y ago
    I don't live in the US so it may be different but the big box stores near me all have signs on their dropboxes saying you can throw devices with internal batteries but not loose batteries
    - somehnguy 4y ago
      Wrap it in tape with an LED attached. Now it’s a device with internal battery, problem solved :) Some hobby shops do nearly exactly this to get around import restrictions. Whether it’s inside something or not it’s still a lipo battery, imo it’s a silly rule and worth breaking.
freeone3000 4y ago
Apple offers a financial incentive to trade in your old iPhone. That is the pure reason. And you have to say, tossing out the battery is much better than tossing out the entire phone, battery and all
- misnome 4y ago
  > Apple offers a financial incentive to trade in your old iPhone. That is the pure reason. Is that… a bad thing?
  - freeone3000 4y ago
    It’s not likely to be offered for random $200 phones.

orf 4y ago

User replaceable batteries also covers “any old phone repair shop”. It’s quite possible that the aggregate recycling rates of these are not great.

safety1st 4y ago
If you want to achieve a very high battery recycling rate: * Mandate that batteries be replaceable * Mandate that repair shops recycle used batteries rather than throw them away Mandates on consumers don't mean much because they're hard to enforce, but mandates on businesses are much easier. The consumer will come into the shop to get a new battery installed and drop off the old battery for recycling in the process. Maybe throw in a trade-in rebate for the repair shops or something to seal the deal.
- danaris 4y ago
  You need to go a step further: * Mandate that the companies/organizations that claim to recycle batteries actually recycle them, with severe penalties for the ones that bid low and then just send the batteries to a landfill in another country.