Why you should hold on to your old smartphone

I once had a manager who would run out on the first day a new iPhone was available, then show off his shiny new toy to all his underlings — who felt forced to ooh and ahh over its capabilities.

But I took the opposite path, holding onto my smartphones until they basically curled into a ball and died. My current device, an iPhone 13 Pro from 2022, still works great, except for the battery. It stopped getting juiced by wall chargers; then the car charger couldn't perk it up. Now, only a charging cord plugged directly into my laptop will do the trick. Our separation draws near.

My reluctance to make a new purchase is partly anxiety about going to the Apple store, trying to remember my Apple ID, and then being hit with sticker shock over an iPhone 16 or 17. But there's also pride in not succumbing to the fever that afflicted my former boss; there is a real benefit to the Earth, and yourself, in holding on to a clunker for as long as you can.

Here are five reasons why slowing your smartphone roll is good for everyone:

Environmental cost of a new smartphone

A modern smartphone is very complex hardware, requiring at least 70 elements — such as indium, nickel, and magnesium — to produce. The manufacturing process for smartphones (metal extraction, production, shipping), makes up 85 percent of the devices' carbon footprint, according to FairPlanet.org.

Impoverished countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo bear a disproportionate cost of phone production. The DNR produces much of the cobalt used to make lithium-iron rechargeable batteries for smartphones, and their air, water, and trees suffer as a result. Congolese workers mining for cobalt often operate under brutal working conditions, as Siddharth Kara, a fellow at Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health, told NPR.

By using your smartphone for its full lifecycle, you can indirectly discourage companies like Apple and Google from producing so much harmful hardware.

Fewer phones mean smaller landfills

What happened to all that hardware my ex-manager left behind? He was probably like the 45 percent of Americans who just stash their old phones in a drawer, and likely toss them in the trash during spring cleaning or on moving day. 

E-waste, which includes junked cell phones, leaches pollutants like lead and mercury into the environment. Some 62 million tons of that gunk went into the environment in 2022, according to the World Health Organization.

If you do purchase a new phone, remember recycling the old one is an option. Only 39 percent of people have ever recycled a phone, according to a recent CNET survey. Hard as it is to believe, that's an improvement: a YouGov survey from 2024 found that only seven percent of people ever recycled an old phone. Click here for some great tips on how to recycle your old phone safely.

A new phone — in this economy?

A new smartphone is a major investment. As of April 2026, an iPhone 17e costs $599; a regular iPhone 17 retails for $799; an iPhone Air goes for $999; and an iPhone 17 Pro costs $1099. Meanwhile, the Google Pixel 10 Pro costs $999, while the 10 Pro XL starts at $1,199, according to the latest numbers.

Seems pricey for something that will be outdated, by my ex-manager's standards, in just a few months.

Clunky phone = less screen time?

On a recent trip to Disneyland, I knew my old 13's battery wouldn't make it through the day if I checked NYTimes.com every time we were in a line — and I wasn't about to bring my laptop to charge it up.

My answer was to put the phone away and only use it when I absolutely needed to, such as checking the Disney app for ride info and food ordering. Result: I was more present and amiable, making up games to keep my kids occupied and soaking up all the details you miss when your head is craned down at a small screen.

All those fancy new offerings that the latest iPhone or Pixel offers are more reasons to pull out your device again and increase your screen time. Who's trying to do that? Less time online, especially on social media, appears to have many benefits, especially for young people.

Smartphone makers are doing just fine

Apple's market capitalization reached $4 trillion in Nov. 2025. The company is now wealthier than every nation on Earth, save for the U.S., China, Germany, and Japan. Google parent Alphabet, maker of the Pixel, is just about as rich as Apple. Samsung is not in the same league as Apple and Alphabet, but the Galaxy-maker has a nearly $1 trillion market cap.

So if the Earth isn't your main consideration when deciding to ditch your old phone, remember these companies aren't exactly hurting for more customers. In the end, there are plenty of local restaurants and bookstores that could use your money a lot more than Silicon Valley.