The Hidden Treasure in What We Throw Away

Images from GPT AI

We live in a world where it’s so easy to toss things aside the moment they stop working. A charger stops charging, a phone screen cracks, or an old gadget just won’t power on and into the trash it goes. It’s almost second nature for most people. But there’s an old saying that still holds a lot of weight: “Waste not, want not.”

I’ve come to understand the deep truth behind this phrase through my work as an electronics technician more specifically, as someone who repairs mobile phones. Over the years, I’ve learned not to throw away what others might call “junk.” Why? Because that so called junk has saved me, and my customers, more times than I can count.

Let me take you into my world for a moment.

A lot of people assume that once a phone is dead or a charger no longer works, it’s completely useless. They see only what’s broken. But I’ve learned to see beyond that. What looks like trash to the average eye can be a goldmine of parts and possibilities to someone like me.

For example, just the other day, a customer brought in a Bluetooth speaker that wouldn’t charge anymore. It seemed like a dead case, and most would have thrown it out. But I remembered an old charger I had lying around one that was “spoilt” according to its previous owner. I had saved it, as I often do, because I knew the internal components might be useful one day.

And sure enough, they were. With a few careful tweaks, I was able to extract a functional charging wire from that old charger and repurpose it into the speaker’s charging port. Just like that, the speaker was brought back to life not because we spent money on new parts, but because we didn’t waste the old ones.

This kind of situation happens more often than you might expect. In my workspace, I have a drawer full of “condemned” phones. They’re not for sale, not for show, and certainly not garbage. Each one holds a tiny bit of potential. Maybe it’s a good screen, a working battery, or even a small connector piece that could fix another phone of the same make and model. Every little part has its own hidden value.

A friend of mine once brought over a phone with a damaged motherboard. Most would’ve advised him to buy a new phone. Instead, I reached into my drawer, found a similar model with a busted screen but a good motherboard, and swapped it in. Within hours, the phone was working again.

This habit of holding onto old or broken items might look strange to some. My workspace isn’t the neatest there are wires, screws, shells of phones, and broken chargers everywhere. But each of those items represents a chance, a solution waiting for the right problem to come along.

“Waste not, want not” isn’t just a wise proverb it’s a practical philosophy. Especially in fields like engineering, repair, and restoration, it’s a mindset that separates those who survive from those who thrive.

It’s also worth noting that this approach doesn’t just help me professionally; it’s saved customers time and money, and it’s contributed in a small but meaningful way to reducing electronic waste in our environment. We live in a throwaway culture, where newer is always better, and repairs are seen as more trouble than they’re worth. But I’ve found joy and purpose in doing the opposite: preserving, reusing, and giving old things a second chance.

There’s something deeply satisfying about turning a “hopeless” object into something functional again. It’s almost like bringing something back from the dead. You see the light in someone’s eyes when they thought their device was gone forever, and suddenly it’s working again.

To someone on the outside, it might look like I’m just fixing phones. But to me, it’s about more than just repairs. It’s about respect for what we have, for what others take for granted, and for the unseen potential in the broken and forgotten.

So next time you’re about to throw something away stop for a moment. Ask yourself if it’s truly useless, or if someone with a little skill and patience might see it differently. Maybe even you could learn to see the value hiding beneath the surface.

Remember: waste not, want not. Those words might just be the key to saving a little money, doing a little good, and finding a little meaning in the everyday things we often overlook.

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