Old mobile phones

Tuesday, July 15th 2008 - 20:47 CEST - Comments: 0

W hat happens to most mobile devices when people no longer use them? That was the question Nokia asked more than 6, 500 people in 13 countries around the world recently. The surprising results showed that most are stored away at home because very few of us don’t know that that they can be recycled or how to do this. The survey conducted in Finland, Germany, Italy, Russia, Sweden, UK, United Arab Emirates, USA, Nigeria, India, China, Indonesia and Brazil, found that only 3% of people recycle their mobile phones. Very few are being thrown away (4%) instead the majority (44%) are simply kept at home and never used.

 

 

Recycling mobile phones

Globally, 74% of consumers said they don't think about recycling their phones, despite the fact that around the same number, 72%, think recycling makes a difference to the environment. Nearly half of those surveyed added that they were unaware that it was even possible to recycle a mobile.

 

 

Nokia mobile survey

The survey found that one of the main reasons why so few people recycle their mobile phones is because they simply don't know that it is possible to do so. In fact, up to 80% of any Nokia device is recyclable and precious materials within it can be reused to help make new products such as kitchen kettles, park benches, dental fillings or even saxophones and other metal musical instruments.

 

 

 

Best recycling technology

Mr Terho said, "Using the best recycling technology nothing is wasted. Between 65 - 80 per cent of a Nokia device can be recycled. Plastics that can't be recycled are burnt to provide energy for the recycling process, and other materials are ground up into chips and used as construction materials or for building roads. In this way nothing has to go to landfill." The results will help Nokia find out more about consumers' attitudes and behaviors towards recycling, and inform the company's take-back programs and efforts to increase recycling rates of unused mobile devices.

 

 

 

Future of old mobile phones

Markus Terho, Director of Environmental Affairs, Markets, at Nokia said, "If each of the three billion people globally owning mobiles brought back just one unused device we could save 240,000 tonnes of raw materials and reduce greenhouse gases to the same effect as taking 4 million cars off the road. By working together, small individual actions could add up to make a big difference."

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