buc, I remember a story ABC News did about 5 years+ ago on cell phone recycling. Apparently it's a worthwhile enterprise. It's been quite long but I think they reuse the circuit board and extract reusable components and materials like gold (yes there are gold plating) or other useful materials and even toxic ones. I myself have 3 old ones lying around I know this problem will get worse.
After reading your post I searched online to see if there was a drop off site for my old phones and to my surprise there was one close by.
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