Is there any way I can recycle a device that has been iCloud locked?

Some months ago, an old friend of mine gave me an Iphone 4 that she no longer uses. I don't have much experience with Apple products, so I wasn't expecting to see that the device was locked with her iCloud account. As a way to mitigate this problem, I decided to factory reset using iTunes. But at the end, I was greeted by the activation lock. Before continuing my question, I want to add something: **I know what an activation lock is, how it works, and why it is important. I am not trying bypass it, break it, or gain any profit from this device.** What I am trying to do, and the reason I took this device, is to *recycle* it or *reuse* it somehow. After all, it is a very old device, but it was still functional. Now, let's continue the story. The device locked, asking SIM and password. I tried to contact with my friend to ask the password, but she said she haven't used the device for years and now has no idea about her credential. Which just leaves me hopeless with this nice looking shiny brick. Fast forward to now, this brick was sitting in one of my drawers until I recently discovered it again. As I said before, the device was working flawless, except the crack on its screen. Which leads me to wonder: What can I do with it know? This device is now essentially an e-waste. Or is it? As I said before, I am not trying to gain any profit from this device. Can I use its parts? But a better question: Is there a way to make it got recycled? I think I heard that you can just drop it off at an Apple store. What other ways do you know I can try to recycle/reuse this old Iphone 4? As I said, I don't have much experience with Apple.