You do not need to throw away your old gadgets or technologies. Rather than throwing them away, you can upcycle them. You will be surprised at the level of efficiency that comes with reusing your old tech products.
Throwing out old electronics is never a good option. E-waste is known to have some dangerous impacts on the environment and the health of those in charge of disposing of waste.
Before going into the guides on how to upcycle your old gadgets, you need to understand what upcycling is about.
What is upcycling?
Upcycling refers to transforming a valueless object into something of a higher value. For example, you can transform an old laptop into an educational tool for you or the kids. You can achieve this by putting different learning software or educational games for the kids. This is a great way to keep the kids occupied and away from your new laptop.
Difference between upcycling and recycling
Most people can barely tell the difference between upcycling and recycling. While the goal of these two activities may be the same, they involve different processes. Recycling or upcycling are two methods that are used to control e-waste and reduce its environmental impact.
Recycling is the process of breaking down old materials to reuse them for other products. For example, the different parts of an old stereo, when broken down, can be used in the production of other products.
Upcycling, on the other hand, repurposes the product. For example, you can use your old laptop as an additional monitor for your home workstation. Most self-storages are filled with old unused tech devices. Put your old gadgets to use rather than allowing them to take up space in your storage. This will help you use the storage for other important purposes or simply sell it off to buyers for extra cash, or you can even ask for help on websites that sells self-storages like Selfstoragecashbuyers or other related websites.
Do you have old unused gadgets in your home or office? Here is a how-to guide on how to repurpose old tech gadgets.
Alarm clock
Most of us use our phones as an alarm clock, but the purpose of the alarm clock is often defeated due to the many distractions caused by the phone. Notifications from different apps make relaxing, sleeping, or concentrating difficult. You can use your old smartphone rather than using your overly active phone as an alarm.
Smart home control panel
Why connect multiple control sources to your smart home devices when you can control most of them from one source? If you have an old smartphone or tablet, you can use it as a control panel for your smart home technologies. All you need to do is to create a little holder on the wall to put the phone and tablet.
Photo frame
The world has gone digital, so why not get creative with it? You can do so by putting up a digital photo frame rather than the traditional one. Your old tablet will make a good digital photo frame. You can mount the tablet on a wall and then display your favourite pictures on it. There are several apps available online that can help you set your pictures to slide automatically.
Music device
What do you think about having a dedicated music device? You can use an old music player or smartphone as a dedicated music device while working out or doing other activities. We mostly use our phones as music players and sometimes get distracted with calls, chats, or other notifications. When you use an old music player or smartphone as a dedicated music device, you can put your phone on silent while focusing on the task you have at hand.
E-waste recycling program
If you aren’t upcycling your old tech devices, you can always recycle them through e-waste recycling programs. This way, you can hand over your e-waste to professionals to help you recycle them safely
Donations
Your old unused gadgets can be useful to a lot of people or establishments. You can donate your old laptops to schools to be used as educational devices or give your old smartphones or tablets to those in need of them.
Conclusion
Storing unused gadgets is unnecessary clutter. Rather than storing them, you can upcycle them and put them to better use, donate them to those who need them, or recycle them appropriately.
