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Where old phones, chargers and cables should actually go

International E-Waste Day is a good excuse to empty the drawer. Here is how to hand electronics over safely, and wipe your data first.

2 October 2026 · 8 min read

A pile of old electronic parts and components

Chetanya Goel · Founder & Editor

Chetanya started Annam Naturals after two years of keeping a household waste diary. Chetanya writes about the boring, repeatable habits that hold up in a real week.

Almost every home has a drawer of dead phones, tangled chargers and cables for devices nobody owns any more. International E-Waste Day, held each year on 14 October, exists to get that drawer emptied in the right direction.

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Electronics contain valuable metals like copper, gold and cobalt, and hazardous ones like lead and mercury. In the dustbin they leak into soil or get burned informally to recover metal, which harms the people doing it. Through the right channel, much of the material can be recovered.

Step 1: sort what you have

  • Working devices you no longer use
  • Broken devices that might be repairable
  • Truly dead devices, cables and chargers
  • Batteries, including any that look swollen

Step 2: reuse before recycling

A working phone or laptop is worth far more used than shredded. Sell it, give it to a family member, or donate it to a school or charity that refurbishes devices. Cables and chargers that work are often welcome at repair shops.

Step 3: wipe your data

Before anything leaves your hands, back up what you need, sign out of accounts, remove any SIM and memory cards, and do a full factory reset. For laptops, use the built-in reset option that erases the drive. If a device does not turn on, a recycler that offers certified data destruction is the safer choice.

Step 4: find an authorised channel

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In India, the E-Waste Management Rules make producers responsible for collecting their products at end of life. In practice that means:

  • Brand take-back programmes, often with collection points or free pick-up
  • Authorised e-waste recyclers and collection centres registered with the pollution control board
  • Retailer drop-off bins in some electronics stores
  • Municipal e-waste collection drives

Ask whoever collects your devices whether they are authorised. A legitimate recycler can usually show this.

Batteries need special care

Lithium-ion batteries can catch fire if crushed or punctured. Never put them in the general bin. Tape the terminals of loose batteries and hand them to an e-waste collector. A swollen phone or laptop battery should be handled gently and taken in promptly.

Keep the drawer from refilling

Buy one good charger for multiple devices, choose products with replaceable batteries where possible, and repair before replacing. Our guide to right-to-repair laws explains how that is becoming easier.

For more of this kind of testing, the zero-waste home hub collects everything we've tried in that area.

Frequently asked

Do I need to buy anything to get started?

No. Every method here begins with what is already in your cupboards. We only recommend a purchase when something has genuinely worn out, and we say what it should cost.

How do you test the things you write about?

Minimum four weeks of ordinary household use, with notes. For anything involving energy or money we use a plug-in meter and record the readings before and after.

Are your recommendations paid for?

Never. Brands cannot buy placement. Some outbound links are affiliate links, which we mark, and they do not change what makes the list.

What if a method doesn't work in my home?

Write to us. A surprising amount of our best material comes from readers explaining why something failed in a flat, a shared house or a very cold winter.

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