Got Old Phones or Laptops Sitting Idle in Bordon?

Bordon households get through electricals faster than most people realise — a new phone arrives, a laptop gets replaced for work, an air fryer takes over from the old toaster, and the previous one goes into a cupboard “just in case.” Multiply that across a town of around 14,000 people and there’s a surprising amount of working technology sitting idle rather than being useful to somebody else. Anglo Doorstep Collections exists to close that gap: we collect working electrical goods and devices straight from your doorstep, completely free, anywhere in Bordon.

A gadget left in a drawer helps nobody. The same gadget, collected and passed on, can raise money for charity and give someone else exactly what they need.

We don’t only visit Bordon itself. The same free doorstep service covers Liphook, Headley, Whitehill and Lindford, so if you’ve got family or neighbours nearby who are also having a clear-out, they can book a separate collection on the same basis.

What counts as a small electrical in Bordon

If it switches on, runs on a battery or plugs in and still does its job, it’s very likely something we can take.

Our rule of thumb is simple: the item needs to be small, electrical, and in proper working order. That covers a lot of ground — mobile phones and smartphones of any age, tablets and e-readers, laptops and desktop towers with their keyboards and mice, wireless earbuds and speakers, hairdryers and straighteners, and kitchen regulars like kettles, toasters and blenders. Cordless power tools such as drills and sanders are popular donations too, along with digital cameras and small radios. What we can’t collect are TVs, printers, microwaves, lamps and light bulbs, tower fans, sewing machines, or any large appliance like a washing machine or fridge — those fall outside what a doorstep collection of small electricals can handle.

Packing up what you’re donating

A few minutes of preparation means your old devices are ready to be used again the moment they’re collected.

Getting items ready doesn’t take long, but it makes a real difference to how quickly they can be reused. Before anything goes in the bag, give it a quick test to make sure it still powers up and functions as it should.

• Switch each item on to confirm it still works before packing it away
• Back up anything important, then sign out and factory reset phones, tablets and laptops, removing SIM cards and memory cards
• Keep chargers and cables together with their matching device, so it’s ready to use straight away
• Wrap screens in newspaper or bubble wrap and pack everything into a sturdy, labelled bag or box marked “Anglo Doorstep Collections”

From booking to collection day

There’s no need to rearrange your day around us — just book, pack, and leave your items out.

Once you’ve chosen a free collection date and picked which partner charity you’d like your donation to support, the rest is straightforward. Pack your electricals as above, then leave them on your doorstep or somewhere safe and dry — a porch, a covered bin store, wherever suits your home. You don’t need to wait in or rearrange your morning; just add a note in the booking telling the driver where to find everything, and they’ll take it from there.

This is exactly why the service suits households who find it hard to get out and about — elderly neighbours, disabled residents, or anyone juggling work and family who simply doesn’t have a spare hour to drive to a recycling centre. Nobody has to carry anything further than their own doorstep.

Where an old handset ends up next

The phone in your drawer is likely worth more to somebody else than it is sitting idle at home.

Most upgrades leave a perfectly functional handset behind. Left in a drawer, it only loses value and relevance with each passing year; passed on while it still works, it can go straight to someone who needs it, or be sold on to raise funds for charity. The same goes for tablets, laptops and small kitchen appliances — a working blender or hairdryer someone else can use immediately is worth far more in circulation than sitting unused in a cupboard.

Reuse keeps good electricals doing a job, rather than letting them quietly depreciate into landfill.

This is really the heart of a local circular economy — items staying in use, moving from one household to another rather than being bought new and binned a few years later. It also plays a quiet part in keeping Bordon tidier: every appliance or gadget collected from a doorstep is one less thing dumped at a kerbside, left for a council collection, or worse, fly-tipped somewhere it shouldn’t be.

Why this matters beyond Bordon

The scale of UK electrical waste is larger than most households imagine, and small actions add up.

The UK produces around 1.6 million tonnes of electrical waste every year, among the highest amounts per person anywhere in the world. Material Focus estimates that UK homes are currently holding onto around 880 million unused electrical items, while roughly 103,000 tonnes of electricals get thrown straight into household bins annually rather than reused or recycled. Globally, only 22% of e-waste is properly collected and recycled, according to the Global E-waste Monitor 2024 — the rest is lost to landfill or informal disposal, where harmful materials can leak out over time.

Donating a device that still works avoids the heavy carbon cost of manufacturing a new one from scratch, and even electricals that are recycled rather than reused allow valuable materials like copper, aluminium and small amounts of gold to be recovered rather than wasted. These are estimates drawn from published UK research rather than guarantees for any single item, but the direction is clear: reuse and proper recycling both beat the bin.

Other things we can take off your hands in Bordon

An electricals clear-out is often the moment people notice everything else that’s ready to go.

Sorting through old tech tends to uncover other things worth donating on the same visit. We also collect clothes, linen and towels, books, toys, household items and kitchenware in Bordon, all picked up together so there’s no need to book separately for each category. You can see every place we cover on our collections near you page, or browse our full collections across Hampshire.