Admit it—we’re all semi-dependent on electronic gadgets these. It’s difficult to imagine how life would be without our smartphones, for instance. Advances in technology have made mobile devices more integrated into our daily lives; aside from sending messages and making calls, our phones are cameras, gaming devices, and music devices, all in one.

This has created a very lucrative market for manufacturers like Samsung, Apple, Sony and many other brands, all of whom offer a rich assortment of consumer devices for virtually any kind of budget, fuelling the incredible demand for these devices.

Unfortunately, this revolution has its own dark side—electronic waste. With technology improving faster than before, this has resulted in an accumulation of unused electronic devices. People are discarding and replacing their electronic devices faster than they can dispose of the old ones.

Of course, there are ways to deal with electronic waste and keep it to a minimum. Follow these tips to control your production of e-waste.

Wait Until the Device is Phased Out Before You Upgrade

It’s quite tempting to upgrade to the new model next year, even though your previous model is still working. Unless you got a lot of relatives and friends who’d appreciate “hand-me-down” devices, especially smartphones, then why not wait until the device loses all support from the manufacturer before you upgrade?

In the case of smartphones, new models mean new operating systems. However, you’d do well to know that each version of the operating system can be used by older models that have been released at most 5 years before. You can update your software and still enjoy the new features, minus the new ones that are marketed by each recent upgrade.

The only time to upgrade to a new phone, so to speak, is when your device is no longer supported by the new mobile operating system.

Take Care of Your Gadgets

In addition to upgrades, one more reason why people tend to discard their electronic devices is quickly is “wear and tear.” Unfortunately, while stress tests have shown that such devices are designed to last long, abusing these contraptions and not maintaining them well causes them to break down faster than their rated life expectancy.

So, people go ahead and buy new ones. However, the now broken devices are kept and not recycled, thus contributing to the amount of electronic waste accumulating all across the globe.

Take better care of your gadgets and they’ll last a lot longer. Along the way, you do the environment a favor.

Recycle

Finally, if your devices have reached the end of their lives, it’s high time now to donate your electronic devices instead of letting them sit down and gather dust. While the battery and the main processing unit may not be working, there are parts inside that can be recycled and used to make new devices.

Doing so will reduce the need for mining the raw materials that will be used to produce those components that power the more recent versions of your defunct gadgets.