Recycle your drone

It couldn’t be easier

1

Drone collection

Fill in the form below and we will arrange for your drone to be collected by a courier. Alternatively, you can drop the drone off at a local store or at our office in Lincoln. If parts of the drone or it’s accessories are still valuable we will let you know how much we can pay you for it.

2

Reuse and donate profits

We will refurbish and reuse as many parts as possible as this is even better than recycling and remanufacturing new products. All profits from this are donated to charities that flight the impact of climate change on the world’s poorest people. 

3

Recycle

Any parts that cannot be reused will be seperated and recycled, stopping valuable resources from being used up. 

How we recycle your drone:

Electronics:

We test all drones carefully to see if any components still work. If any of the electronics are still functional our expert technicians will refurbish them according to our strict procedures. The high quality parts can then be used in repairs to save other drones from going to landfill; like how a single organ donor can save multiple lives. Any non-functioning and unfixable components are seperated and recycled as electronic waste. At the recycling plant all the different materials are seperated and are used to make new goods.

Batteries:

Over time drone batteries start to loose some of their life and potentially become unreliable. At this point they should be retired from aerial usage immediately. However, this doesn’t mean that they must be disposed of as there are many applications where reliability and long life are not as essential. Our batteries often get reused to bench test drones, use in RC cars or in hobbyists electronics projects. At times swollen cells can be removed from batteries and the rest of it used in other projects. Unfortunately, although we try to reuse as much as we can, there will always be a few batteries that are too swollen to use safely. These batteries are sent for recycling where valuable materials will be extracted and used to make electronics, more batteries or steel goods.

Plastic:

We seperate out all the plastic and inspect it, often even the most damaged drones have some parts of the frame that are still in good condition. If this is the case we will reuse these. Other parts that can’t be reused are sent to be recycled.

Accessories:

However bad a crash is, accessories like the controller, charger and case will remain in one piece. These can be sold on to be reused by other drone owners. 

Water damaged drones: 

Contrary to popular belief, some water damaged parts can be fixed. This is quite time consuming, so is reserved for the most valuable components. These parts can be resold and reused, so long as the buyer is aware of the component’s history. All the plastic components in water damaged drones are usually still in perfect condition, so these can also be reused.

Donate:

Any profits we make from selling these parts is donated to charities that help fight the impact of climate change. Places like Bangladesh are increasingly impacted by flooding, so the money can help train the poorest people to prepare for climate change, so their livelihoods aren’t destroyed when disaster strikes.

 

Drones we recycle:

  • DJI drones
  • Parrot drones
  • Yuneec drones
  • GoPro Karma
  • Autel drones

If your drone isn’t above we may still recycle it, so please fill in the form anyway, but we cannot guarantee it.


    Frequently asked questions

    We recommend that you place your drone in a solid cardboard box with plenty of bubble wrap. If you have a case with good foam inserts then we suggest you wrap it and send it in that, or better still inside a cardboard box in the case. Please remember to install the gimbal clamp, or to carefully wrap the gimbal in bubble wrap as we have had larger gimbals break when customers didn’t use gimbal clamps. 

    Technically the courier will collect between 8am-8pm. However, they often give a much more specific timeslot. If you can’t leave your drone on your doorstep and aren’t in all day we suggest you drop the drone off at a local parcel drop shop. 

    You can drop your drone off at any Hermes ParcelShop. They are located almost everywhere in the UK. Click here to see your nearest one.

    We can’t guarantee we will be interested in recycling your drone if it isn’t on the list. But please fill in the form anyway and we will let you know if we are interested.