Carbon Footprint

Pattrick Savarna asked:


When you buy a new cell phone what you do with your old phone? Just throw in the drawer or pass it your friend or someone else! You are not alone in doing so. Have you ever thought about recycling your mobile phone? Perhaps you are not aware about it! Again you are not alone. 97% people don’t recycle their phone.

In a recent worldwide survey, conducted by Nokia in accordance with the global consumer survey, it is found that only 3% of people recycle their mobile phones. The survey was conducted in 13 countries including Finland, Germany, Italy, Russia, Sweden, UK, UAE, US, Nigeria, India, China, Indonesia and Brazil, and 6500 people were interviewed. The survey was conducted to help Nokia find out more about consumers’ attitudes and behaviors towards recycling.

Unawareness: The prime concern

Nearly half the people are even not aware of the fact that their mobile could be recycled. Two-third of the interviewers said they did not know how to recycle an unwanted device while 71% were unaware of where to do this. If each of the 3 billion mobile owners brought back just one unused device, even a mobile phone battery charger, 240 000 tonnes of raw materials can be saved and it will help reduce the greenhouse gases to the same effect as taking 4 million cars off the road.

The survey highlighted that on an average, each person own five mobile phones. 4% of these are being thrown into landfill and 44%, are simply being kept at homes never used. Some mobile phones are given another life, one-fourth are passed to friends or family, and 16% are sold in emerging markets.

74% of consumers don’t think about recycling their phones, whereas 72%, think recycling makes a difference to the environment. The result was uniformly found in different countries with 88% of people in Indonesia not considering recycling unwanted devices, 84% in India, and 78% of people in Brazil, Sweden, Germany and Finland.

Helping the environment

80% of any Nokia device is recyclable. The precious materials within these devices can be reused to help make new products such as park benches, kitchen utensils, metal musical instruments or dental fillings. According to Markus Terho, the director of environmental affairs at Nokia, “Using the best recycling technology nothing is wasted. Between 65 - 80% 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.”

Nokia has collection points for unwanted mobile devices in 85 countries around the world. People can drop off their old devices at Nokia stores and 5,000 Nokia Care Centers. To find their nearest take-back point, people can visit www.nokia.com/werecycle.

andrew.regan.2006@googlemail.com asked:


We live in a ‘throw away’ society where nearly everything we buy can be discarded without even a moment’s thought.

Over the years, almost everyone will have been guilty of discarding paper and plastic packaging without ever considering recycling as an option. But with an increasing awareness of the environment and how human actions are affecting it, people are beginning to realise there are actions we can take to ensure the planet is healthy enough for future generations to live in.

But whilst little persuasion should be needed as to the prudence of recycling household waste as much as possible, there is an increasing concern that other household items such as televisions and old video recorders - items that aren’t so easy for consumers to recycle – are needlessly ending up in skips and landfill sites, even when there is very little wrong with them.

Indeed, many electrical items are so cheap to purchase these days that consumers often find it a lot easier to simply buy a new item rather than trying to source it second hand. This also means that their old items are worth a lot less, and so end up being discarded rather than reused. However, there is very little need to do this. Old computers, for example, can be donated to schools or local community groups, and there are charities that are able to accept electrical items and either sell them on, or arrange for them to be recycled.

This is particularly pertinent for mobile phones. Given that there is an estimated four billion mobile phone users on earth, many mobile phone handsets end up in landfill sites, which is a major problem considering a large proportion of mobile phones contain toxic chemicals.

As such, up to 80 per cent of the material in a mobile phone can be reused. And considering that mobile phone users have owned at least five phones on average in their lifetime, that is many billions of handsets that should be getting recycled rather than discarded.

The message does seem to be hitting home, and more and more people are beginning to realise how even the smallest of changes in attitude towards the environment can have a positive effect if everyone gets involved. And there is an increasing amount of initiatives now that are designed to help people minimise their waste.

There are mobile phone trade in schemes in place which are designed to encourage mobile phone recycling by compensating users when they upgrade to a more recent model. Their old handset can then be dispatched to developing markets in Africa or Asia, or they may even be used by insurance companies to help fulfil their mobile phone replacement policy.

So, whilst we do live in a disposable society, it seems we are taking steps towards rectifying our attitudes towards recycling. At a time when environmental issues are of paramount importance, such measures can’t come soon enough.

Mike asked:


Selling and Recycling Mobile Phones

It’s easy to get cash for a mobile phone by recycling it. You just use a mobile phone recycler who will happily pay you cash for your old or unused, unwanted or even broken mobile phones. Just find a site you want to use, search for your make and model of mobile phone and then opt to send the mobile into them. Days later you will receive your payment for your old mobile often in the form of a cheque.

You can sell and recycle old mobile phones this way. Even broken mobile phones that don’t work at all anymore can still be sold and recycled for cash. Broken mobile phones are still valuable as they contain precious metals inside that can be extracted and reused again in a smelting process.

You should never throw old mobile phones away into the trash as they only end up in landfill sites and while landfill sites are scientifically made to contain any toxic chemicals that may get out nothing is fallible and it is possible that the poisonous harmful and hazardous chemicals from inside mobile phones and their batteries could leak out into the earths water supply contaminating our water and drinking supply.

So always recycle old mobile phones. Never throw them away. It’s actually illegal to throw mobile phones away anyway. You have to recycle them properly using some sort of recycling initiative and there are many around so there’s no excuses.

To see a list of the top mobile phone recycling sites you can use to sell and recycle your mobile phone online to for cash see us at http://www.sellyourmobile.info/ We have news, views and reviews and how to guides along with comparisons of mobile phone recyclers and a mobile phone price comparison tool so you can check how much each is offering for your make and model of mobile phone.

http://www.sellyourmobile.info/

Mobile phone recycling review site.