@EUCommission I connected a charger directly to battery terminals of a smartphone whose battery failed, over Schottky diodes to reduce the voltage properly.

Now I have a phone which always shows full battery.

I can run Tesseract OCR on its 4x64-bit ARM CPU over Termux and ssh.

The power Schottkies were upcycled from dead power supplies, the cable from a broken power cord, the USB-A connector from a failed charging cable, I don't remember what the resistor and PCB comes from.

#upcycling #recycling #reuse #frugal #frugalcomputing #frugality #righttorepair #repair #DIY #homemade #powersupply #charger #charging #smartphone #arm64 #tesseract #64bit

@EUCommission I love my old phone because it never discharges, it always shows around 90-100%. The battery can also never age and never explode, because it doesn't have any battery.

And I upcycled 2 power Schottkies and 1 resistor from an old PC supply, 1 USB connector from a broken charging cable and green-white stranded cables from god knows what, probably old power cord. And yes, that old PCB, what is that from? I don't even remember!

@EUCommission By disposing my old phone properly, I cannot run Tesseract OCR on its 4x64-bit ARM CPU via Termux and ssh and help my main PC CPU with work.

@EUCommission so stop promoting and protecting the monopolies that make people discard those devices early in their life. Stop making and funding apps for the google and apple systems, create rules that demand public services to be truly software vendor and distributors neutral.

@EUCommission

I keep mine for legacy software support no longer on newer devices such as bi-directional phone recording on Android 8 and below.

@EUCommission
If they weren't all crap, we wouldn't need backup ones.
Why is is legal to be forced to use Google Play Spyware to be able to "securely" use almost any bank in EU?

RE: https://ec.social-network.europa.eu/@EUCommission/116503806129136765

@EUCommission I was surprised to see Ireland in the number one spot. But then my "old phone" is literally on the desk in front of me.

@EUCommission or we can make sure phone vendors keep them working and can donate old phones to people who are less fortunate

@EUCommission seeing Ireland in the number 1 position. Looking at my collection of old phones.

@EUCommission

Maybe start toake it possible to give a phone a longer life instead of must have a new one every 3y due to battery problems

As in:- forbid the programmed 800 times charging before the battery dies
- have manufacturers use silicium batteries as they are not only faster, they also have a much longer life and are more environmental friendly.
Yes that is possible on a phone. I am typing this on one with silicium battery... About 1400 times charging, the company said.
- open source phones. Break the money monopoly of Google on androids (I can't speak for iPhone, I never had nor will have one), have people use their own choice of apps and REAL privacy.

Start with the manufacturers. Make them take the old phones back for recycling, by having easy acces points.
Don't start with the civilians. They will follow automatically when the manufacturers change their atitude: Money money money ..

@EUCommission

There are around 700 million unused phones in EU homes.

How do you come to that figure, presumably by guessing or industry wishful thinking..

Old Xiomi in my house steers my solar system, Only connection, Connection is to my Delta Pro by Bluetooth.

Soon I will have a lovely non Google Huawei Honor 9X Pro I can not do Banking with it any more. Thanks Ing..

That will then stay in a car holder.
OSM And plus local Maps for Navigation.

Another connects a computer to wifi.

@EUCommission or better promote modular, repairable and upgrade-able phones so we don't need to dispose of them. Don't you think?

@EUCommission so many replies airing grievances and none has asked what the percentages in the infographic refer to!?

@EUCommission This is great! But you know what would be even better than collecting items we've already paid for, and recycle them to sell them back to us?

- ban planned obsolescence in hardware, software, and accessories
- mandate hardware and software must be cross-brand compatible

Recycling is good, but it more so creates new industry loops with collecting, extracting, reusing, repackaging, rather than effectively reducing the need to buy more on consumer or industry level

@EUCommission i've got at least 14, make me an offer

@EUCommission you could try banning locked bootloaders, or at the very least make it mandatory to open them once os updates stop

@EUCommission you should add a link to a list of places where you can give your old phone to.
Recycling it is better than when the city puts 90% of it into a landfill....

@EUCommission also good to add that

Starting from June 20, 2025, smartphones and tablets sold in the European Union must have a minimum of 5 years of software support

@EUCommission
Help promote #fairphone then ! @WeAreFairphone

@EUCommission

Some older Android phones can accept @GrapheneOS so they can be used again rather tha recycled 🤨

@EUCommission Allow unlocking the bootloaders would stimulate clean and safe OS alternatives, longer life for devices and independence from US tech. The EU could enforce it with tthe impulse of the EC. Stop #enshitification.

@EUCommission One of the nice things that could "be the norm" is smartphones that can properly function without a battery. Too often when the battery's dead, the device is out. Or if someone wants to use a smartphone that isn't able to phone anymore as a computer for other tasks, then it would need to be plugged in for long periods of times and it's risky with a battery (no matter the so called over charging protections). An easy way to do that could be pretty useful to avoid e-waste.

@EUCommission That’s a staggering number—turning unused phones into a resource instead of waste just makes sense. Repairability and proper recycling could really reduce dependency and make the whole system more sustainable 📱♻️

@EUCommission

If the smartphone is fairly recent, consider donating it for refugees:

https://en.reset.org/donate-phones-and-save-lives-wir-packens-an-collects-old-smartphones-for-refugees/

(There may be similar initiatives in your country)

It is fairly common for #EU countries to follow the racist and xenophobic lead of the @EUCommission and walk the extra mile to make the lives of refugees as miserable as they possibly can. From the article linked above:

»With a phone as their smart companion, people on the run can recognise their current location, communicate with relatives and friends and, in the worst case, also record crimes and offences. This is because officers often commit bodily harm at border crossings or push back fleeing people via illegal pushbacks. Using a smartphone, fugitives can at least record evidence to report border officials at a later date. However, Daniel Looser from “Wir packen’s an” describes it as a “completely normal tactic” for mobile phones to be confiscated along with other items during border controls. Charging sockets are also regularly destroyed, rendering phones unusable a short time later.«

@EUCommission Hello everyone I'm new here please

@EUCommission

Pro Čechy mezi námi … https://remobil.cz/ organizuje sběr starých mobilních telefonů v Česku a mezi jinými možnostmi sběru kterákoli prodejna T-Mobilu by měla být sběrné kontejnery na staré mobily (i pro mobily od jiných providerů).

#PSA #Česko #Recycle

I'm looking girl

@EUCommission
Unused phone means bad hardware then ? Europe kills GSM networks, garbaging lots of working devices, and let big tech companies cheating customers by telling them to change their WORKING phones every 2-3 years.
Got a Nokia 3310 ?
👍 Was European, rock solid, made to call & text using standards.
👎 Today, networks used killed, European company bought by big tech, US Android as the only OS, loaded with GAFAM bloatware, locked stores and RCS as the texting standard.

Where's EU?

@EUCommission i have a netbook with 1 GB of RAM that im finding it much easier to repurpose than a phone with 3 GB of RAM and a much more powerful CPU

being able to remove the battery easily, run directly from the charger without a battery connected, and have an open bootloader so that i can install a modern and lighter operating system on it, while also not relying on whether google decides if my device is allowed to be useful or not because I chose the operating system instead of letting the OEM choose it for me (and then the OEM drops support much sooner than I'd like to keep using the device for) would reduce e-waste much more than disposing of the old phones

sure, i agree disposing of old devices to recycle them is a good way to prevent e-waste and save resources. but being able to keep our devices for much longer than is currently the case would be even more effective at that

@EUCommission probably no one reads it here, but you should give some resources to @postmarketOS , since they are the forefront for this problem; and they tackle it even before recycling, making these devices reusable.

@EUCommission

@EUCommission Have you considered making that easier? In order to dispose of my ewaste I need to make an appointment (!) at the local recycling center, find someone to drive me there as they hate pedestrians, queue like some kind of indolent buffoon in spite of having an appointment.

@EUCommission stop trading with Israel.

@EUCommission
Jetzt müssen "nur noch" die #Smartphone- #Betriebssystem|e so gestaltet sein, dass man diese SELBST ersetzen, erweitern, bereinigen, kontrollieren kann und seine Daten EINFACH von einem Telefon auf ein andere umziehen kann!
#OhneCloudZwang
#Interoperabilität
#interoperability
#Standardisierung
#standardization
#standardisation

@EUCommission Recently bought another couch secondhand. Reason i had to buy another couch was that the components *read springs* could not be bought seperately at the store i bought the original new couch. Yes, handing in old equipment is a good idea but also the right to repair or to not have to buy a completely new/different thing because of not being able to repair. *also* focus on that.

@EUCommission
Maybe we wouldn't need to keep them as hot spares if there was legislation that crucial everyday tasks could be done without a smartphone registered at either Apple or Google.

@EUCommission I kept all of my old ones. I don't think it's a lot for a 30ish years span 😏 I also have 2 landline phones (not in the picture) ☎️

@EUCommission awesome! Now do home appliances. Refrigerators, washing machines, dryers, dishwashers and televisions need the same treatment.

@EUCommission

@EUCommission

Or you could legislate against developing software at a rate thats imposible to use in a sustained form the same device for more than 2-3 years before having to dispose it?

@EUCommission There's nothing "circular" about it, if we keep on buying more and more of everything year after year. The first rule to be circular is to stop growing. Circles have a constant radius.

#CircularEconomy #Degrowth

@EUCommission
Some may be used without SIM as media players and/or cameras.

The walled gardens of Apple & Google need ending so that people can add and remove apps. Banks and other artificially make phones obsolete by Apps that only work on recent iOS or Android even when the phone OS is still supported.

We need a bigger picture than repair & recycling.

@EUCommission Sverige är top 3!

@EUCommission Se non posso usare le app bancarie sul mio telefono principale, che è senza i servizi Google e Play Integrity, devo per forza avere 2 telefoni. Pensate prima a questo e poi al riciclo.