TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Members of the public are urged to recycle their unwanted mobile phones in an annual campaign that promises prizes including an iPhone 14.

Throughout October, those who bring used cellphones to designated sites will receive a code and become eligible to enter a raffle. Prizes include Acer laptops, iPhones 12 and 14, Samsung Galaxy devices, and convenience store vouchers.

Recycling is available at local cleaning squadrons, convenience stores, mobile phone retailers, and telecom stores. The incentive aims to boost mobile phone recycling rates in Taiwan, which has improved over the years but still lags behind many other countries.

According to the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA), Taiwan purchased an average of 6.5 million new handsets a year during the past three years, but the numbers of recycled units only registered 380,000 in 2019, 360,000 in 2020, and 760,000 in 2021, per Environmental Information Center.

While the recycling rate has increased from 5% to 12%, the EPA is looking to hike the figure to 20%.

A survey indicated that 55.3% of respondents do not recycle their old cellphones, citing reasons from the inconvenience of relevant services to information security concerns. Those who have doubts about a data leak are advised to erase all content in a reset process via settings before disposing of the devices.