{"id":3775,"date":"2024-06-03T15:47:50","date_gmt":"2024-06-03T15:47:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mozillion.com\/resources\/?p=3775"},"modified":"2026-06-10T10:47:51","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T10:47:51","slug":"an-estimated-14-1bn-worth-of-smartphones-sit-unsold-in-uk-homes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mozillion.com\/resources\/an-estimated-14-1bn-worth-of-smartphones-sit-unsold-in-uk-homes\/","title":{"rendered":"An Estimated \u00a314.1bn Worth of Smartphones Sit Unsold in UK Homes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Holly, Team Mozillion<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>

\"Pile<\/span><\/div>

And another 100 million units have been thrown in the bin.<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Aside from the environmental impact of chucking old tech into landfill, there is real financial gain being missed out on by UK adults who generally have at least two old mobile phones lying around their house.<\/p>\n

On top of that, the average UK adult has thrown out a further two phones, of which only 57% were even broken or damaged.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s literally money being thrown in the bin.<\/p>\n

So how much smartphone gold could you be sitting on in your home and how much have you thrown away?<\/p>\n

A 2024 study of 2000 UK adults conducted by giffgaff has revealed that men hold onto or throw away more old phones, by sitting on three unused handsets while throwing away two.<\/p>\n

Over a tenth of UK adults didn\u2019t realise that throwing away old phones is damaging to the environment and a third have never tried to sell on, trade in or recycle their phones for cash or otherwise.<\/p>\n

That being said, cold hard cash or discounts off future products is a huge driver, with nearly half of customers citing this as a motivating factor to look into buying or selling an older phone.<\/p>\n