| Compare and Recycle | |
| Type: | Private company |
| Industry: | Price Comparison |
| Founder: | Matthew Moreton |
| Hq Location: | Maidstone |
| Services: | Mobile phone recycling |
| Num Employees: | 10 |
Compare and Recycle is an independent UK-based online comparison website for electronics recycling. It is owned and operated by Atom Juice Limited. The website is registered in Maidstone,[1] England, and focuses on recycling of mobile phones, tablets, smartwatches, digital cameras, headphones and other devices.
Compare and Recycle was founded in November 2009 by Matthew Moreton to offer a way for consumers to cash in on their used electronic devices via an easy-to-use comparison website. He partnered with Andrew Quinn to fund the launch of the website and build a commercial network of recycling companies to feature on the website which included musicMagpie, O2 Recycle and more.
By 2015, Compare and Recycle allowed for the recycling of mobile phones, laptops, hair straighteners, portable media players, SAT navs, digital cameras and games consoles.
By the end of 2018, the comparison website had a cumulative total of a million of customers. The website then decided to focus its comparison services on mobile phone recycling, recycling of smart electronics and wearables. In 2018, the website was an Amazon Web Services Digital Business of the Year Finalist (Amazon Growing Business Awards).[2]
Records show that in 2023 alone, the website helped consumers in the UK generate £56.4 million[3] for their used gadgets and avoided more than 39 tonnes of electronic waste.
The website is powered by an algorithm that checks integrated recyclers’ price feeds and updates prices regularly for over 4000 products to be displayed to the user. In essence, the comparison website directs the user through a three-step process where the user searches and selects the product to trade on the site, accepts an instant valuation and submits a trade-in order by filling in an order form.[4]
Originally, the Compare and Recycle platform was built using PHP which was retired internally by 2018. Compare and Recycle's new infrastructure expands into three core services, namely the user-facing application powered by Next.JS, billing and product systems powered by Django. The most recent addition was a high performance Rust pricing engine.
In 2019, Compare and Recycle have launched an annual report on iPhone depreciation, demonstrating value decline of iPhone models in circulation and how drops in value correlate with the release of new iPhone models identifying August[5] as the best time to sell an iPhone.[6]
Using anonymised postcode data, Compare and Recycle listed the top 10 locations in the UK where residents most often recycled their used electronic devices. In 2020 Dunfermline[7] in Scotland took the crown, in 2021 Southey Green[8] in Sheffield came first, and in 2022 Portsmouth was in the shortlist.[9]
In a study on smartphone use in the UK, Compare and Recycle surveyed 2,000 people and revealed that 55% of Brits experienced symptoms of ‘smartphone finger’, such as pains and physical changes in their little finger as a result of excessive use of smartphones.[10]