Why, every year, thousands of iPhones in good condition become waste

Thousands of iPhones in perfect condition are destroyed every year because the activation lock prevents their reuse. A report from the CoPIRG Foundation revealed that since 2015, an organization that recycled electronics in the United States had had to discard 66,000 donated phones because their original owners had forgotten to unblock them.

Colorado-based The Wireless Alliance recycling company receives millions of mobile phones each year for reuse. On their page, they say that in 17 years, they recycled 34 million devices.

With regard to mobile phones, activation blocks prevent the use of these devices and, in this sense, contribute to generate more and more electronic waste.

What is the activation lock?

This feature is designed to protect the information of the user in case of loss or theft of the iPhone, the iPad, the iPod touch or the Apple Watch . The activation lock prevents the creation of a new account in iOS if the iCloud pbadword of the old owner of the device is not known.

This is a protection measure designed to discourage theft and take care of user data, but it can also be a barrier if, for example, the original user sells or donates of an iPhone and forgets to unlink it from its iCloud account.

And that's what happens with these thousands of devices that, according to the CoPIRG Foundation, end up being destroyed (to use the components of the device) because they are blocked and you can not access them to reactivate them.

Between 2015 and 2018, the Wireless Alliance recycling company collected approximately 6 million mobile phones in the United States. Of these phones, 333,519 were iPhones that could be reused. But 33,000 were stranded and had to be destroyed or disarmed to save their coins. And last year, a quarter of the iPhone received suffered the same fate and for the same reason. Thus, 66,000 iPhones donated over the last four years have been discarded.

"Although the activation lock is intended to deter thieves because it prevents the use of stolen phones and that it is therefore not worth stealing, a surprisingly high number of phones offered have also become obsolete or transferred, which has a negative impact on the used telephony market, "the report states.

Before selling or giving a device: how to disable the activation lock

Before selling or giving a computer, the first thing to do is to make a copy of the iPhone. Then, you must close the iCloud session from the mobile setup menu. To do this, you must enter the pbadword for the Apple ID and press Disable.

Then you have to go back to the Settings menu and follow this route: General / Reset / Delete content and settings.If my iPhone search has been activated, you will need to enter your Apple ID and pbadword. Then you have to press the option Delete the device.

If you do not have the device on hand, you can unlink it remotely, from iCloud.. You must enter it, with username and pbadword, go to Settings, choose the device you want to unpair, click on the name, and choose Delete.