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Comment by vegetablepotpie | Hacker News Reader

For consumers to turn in their old mobile devices, a successful effort will need:

- A clear benefit from turning the device in (money, phone will be used to build electric cars).

- A clear instructions on how to do a factory reset on all devices to promote data privacy

- A consistent, well advertised, clearly marked place to turn devices in

- confidence that turning in the device will lead to the outcomes advertised. If you advertise money, and consumers end up getting a rebate form for a check that never come in the mail, or if they see a news report that their phones were thrown in the garbage and not actually recycled, no one will turn in their phone again.

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> - A clear instructions on how to do a factory reset on all devices to promote data privacy

This should be unnecessary and is likely a large part of why people don't. There are loads of reasons it is not possible to wipe a device. I have one which reboots before any point it will accept input.

I've rarely (... never?) retired a phone that was still usable enough to wipe it. Most could be repaired to a usable state, but at like 50% the cost of a new phone, so I just get a new one instead (since by then there are usually a bunch of other parts just waiting to go bad). Definitely not gonna spend that money so I can wipe them in order to recycle them.

For (a) a mandatory deposit which you pay when purchasing the device, and get back when recycling it could work. It works pretty well for plastic bottles at least.

That feels like pushing the costs onto the customer without actually solving the problems that impede it. Now you've just made it cost money to care about the privacy problems.

I specifically proposed this only to address the first point made by the parent comment. Never did I claim that this would solve the other two.

That's fair, but given that it makes the other issues worse I think it's a valid concern to raise.

It would be nice if recyclers assumed some liability for data loss (encouraging them to destroy sensitive information on recycled electronics). I’m not sure if that’s currently a thing, but it seems reasonable to protect the customer’s information on the phone. There also needs to be some legal express lane for consumers to collect on that to ensure the stick is sufficiently motivating.

Good news, on iOS and macOS there’s a “Reset all content and settings” button that does everything needed. And if you go through the trade in flow from Apple they walk you through it.

I wish the pledge systems for bottles would also be applied to technical devices. So far the only company I know of is Shiftphone.

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