Our Mission

To bring T-Mobile® customers together to take positive actions to help our environment.

T-Mobile’s Handset Recycling Program

The EPA estimates that only about 10 percent of used cell phones are turned in for reuse and recycling each year.¹ For every one million cell phones we recycle, 35,284 pounds of copper, 772 pounds of silver, 75 pounds of gold and 33 pounds of palladium can be recovered.² This equates to saving enough energy to power 185 U.S. households with electricity each year or 6.1 Metric Tons of CO².

• Reducing environmental and human health impacts from improper recycling;
• Increasing access to quality reusable and refurbished equipment to those who need them; and
• Reducing energy use and other environmental impacts associated with mining and processing of virgin materials – conserving our limited natural resources

Through our handset recycling program you can take your cell phone (any make, model or carrier), cell phone batteries, accessories, tablets and netbooks to any T-Mobile location in the United States & Puerto Rico to be recycled for free.
Find your closest T-Mobile retail store.

Protect your information

• Turn off power.
• Erase your address book, photos, messages and other stored information.
• Remove the SIM card (found in some GSM or 4G devices). If you're unsure if your device has one, contact your provider for more information.
• Restore the device factory settings on your device.
• For instructions on how to do this, go to owner's manual or on the manufacturers' web site and follow the manufacturer's instructions for deleting all personal information on your wireless device.

Please note that if the devise is not cleared of personal information our certified 3rd party electronics recycler has software that will automatically “wipe clean” all personal user content, which includes over 200 attributes, some of those are: Pictures, contacts, call history, e-mails, text messages, appointments, cookies and history, videos and tasks.*

T-Mobile’s Standards

T-Mobile USA, Inc. and our customers handle and dispose of various types of wireless phones, smartphones, accessories, and batteries. Federal and state laws regulate how batteries and devices are recycled. The T-Mobile USA, Inc. recycling program complies with those laws, and gives consumers a way to properly and safely recycle these items in order to protect themselves and the environment. Recyclables include handsets, chargers, nickel cadmium (NiCd) batteries, lithium-ion batteries, small sealed lead acid (SSLA) batteries, and nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) batteries.

* T-Mobile and its third party electronics recycler don't guarantee the security of confidential data stored in the electronic products you recycle.

¹U.S EPA. Electronics Waste Management in the United States: Approach 1. July 2007. EPA530-R-07-009
(http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/conserve/materials/ecycling/manage.htm)
¹U.S Geological Survey “Recycled Cell Phones – A Treasure Trove of Valuable Metals” (PDF) (July 2006)