There's plenty you can do with an old flip phone instead of retiring it.

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So, you are doing a bit of seasonal cleaning, and you came across the dreaded electronics drawer. One minute you are blissfully tidying up your office, the next you are confronted with a mountainous trove of old gadgets. But don't worry, holding onto an old flip phone is not a surefire sign that you belong on the next episode of "Hoarders."

Despite their lack of advanced features, old cellphones can still serve utilitarian purposes in their old age. From serving as an emergency backup to saving you from crafty pickpockets on vacation, you probably have good reasons to keep your old phones around.

But saving your phone is more than a useful lifehack: It's an ecological imperative. The mass of e-waste mounting in global landfills is an underdiscussed crisis.…