UPDATE 3/5: Sonos will ditch Recycle Mode, The Verge reports. The Trade Up program will live on, but customers can now decide what they want to do with older devices: keep them, give them away, recycle nearby, or send to Sonos. To get the discount, you'll just have to prove via the Sonos app that you own one of the older devices. But you don't have to trade it in anymore.

Original Story 12/28:

Sonos' Trade-Up program, unveiled earlier this year, offers discounts on new products when you trade in old ones, but some customers are unhappy with how Sonos disposes of old speakers and related products.

Rather than reselling units that are still in good condition, Sonos reportedly tosses them. Several Play:5 speakers, for example, were submitted to Sonos. Each can resell for $250 in good condition, but Sonos will dispose of them, according to Twitter user @atomicthumbs, who works at an e-recycling facility.

"This is the most environmentally unfriendly abuse and waste of perfectly good hardware I've seen in five years working at a recycler," the Twitter user said in a series of tweets. "We could have sold these, and ensured they were reused, as we do with all the working electronics we're able. Now we have to scrap them."

To participate, in the Trade-Up program, shoppers sign in to My Account, click the Trade Up tab and select the devices to trade in. Confirm in the Sonos app, and buyers instantly receive credit for 30 percent off any new Sonos product for each device they choose to upgrade. Once they confirm in the app, it's recycle or nothing. Devices will be active for 21 days, but after that, they enter Recycle Mode, at which point data is deleted and the gadget is "permanently deactivated," Sonos says.

Gadgets eligible for upgrades include the Connect (recently replaced by the $399 Sonos Port), Connect:Amp, ZP80, ZP90, ZP100, ZP120, and Play:5 (Gen 1).

Further Reading

Speaker Reviews