"Just recycle it" is the standard advice for an old router, and it's not wrong, but it undersells how much variability sits behind that single word. What actually happens depends heavily on where it goes after you hand it over.
The Uncomfortable Global Number
Globally, only about 22% of e-waste is documented as properly collected or recycled. The rest is landfilled, dumped into the environment, or exported to countries with less stringent environmental oversight, where informal processing (sometimes involving burning circuit boards to recover metals) creates serious pollution and health risks for the people doing that work. This isn't a reason to skip recycling — it's a reason to be specific about where your device actually goes.
What Legitimate Recycling Actually Involves
For a router that does end up in a proper recycling stream, the process is more industrial than the word "recycling" suggests. Devices get shredded and undergo processes like smelting and refining to recover valuable materials — copper, aluminum, small amounts of precious metals. This works, but it's energy-intensive, and routers specifically contain hazardous materials like cadmium, lead, mercury, and brominated flame retardants that need careful separation rather than just being ground up indiscriminately.
The Option That Beats Recycling: Refurbishment
If your router still works — it's just outdated, or you're upgrading — refurbishing and reusing it is meaningfully better than recycling it. Refurbishing a working device uses up to 85% less energy than the recycling process, since it skips the shredding, smelting, and refining entirely and just extends the life of a device that's already built. Donating a working router, selling it, or passing it to someone with simpler needs accomplishes this without any special effort.
How to Actually Make Sure Your Router Is Handled Responsibly
Manufacturer take-back programs and certified e-waste recyclers (look for R2 or e-Stewards certification specifically) are meaningfully more likely to process devices responsibly than a generic drop-off bin with no visibility into where materials actually end up. It's a small amount of extra research, but it's the difference between "probably recycled properly" and "definitely just tossed in a general e-waste pile with unclear destination."
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