Nokia, the giant handset manufacturer, has released a survey showing that only about 3% of the mobile users around the globe are recycling their old cell phones.
The question behind the survey was "What happens to most mobile devices when people no longer use them?" and, as it turns out, unfortunately, about 44% of the users either simply keep the old handsets in their homes, without ever using them again, or give them to someone else.
6,500 people were questioned during the "recycling survey", from countries like Finland, Sweden, the UK, the US, Italy, Germany, Russia, United Arab Emirates, China, India, Indonesia, Brazil and Nigeria. 74% of those 6,500 stated that they never thought about recycling their unused handsets.
"It is clear from this survey that when mobile devices finally reach the end of their lives that very few of them are recycled," said Markus Terho, Director of Environmental Affairs, Markets, at Nokia. "Many people are simply unaware that these old and unused mobiles lying around in drawers can be recycled or how to do this. Nokia is working hard to make it easier, providing more information and expanding our global take-back programs. 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."
Lots of the participants in the survey did not know where and how to recycle old mobile phones. Nokia considers that everyone should know these things and, in order to help the recycling process, it has created a special website, filled with detailed info on the matter. Also, users can find there the location of more than 5,000 Nokia Care Centers from all over the world, where they can leave their old phones in order to be recycled. The Nokia Recycle website can be accessed at this address.
"Using the best recycling technology nothing is wasted," says Mr Terho. "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."
In conclusion: if you have one or more old handsets that you no longer use, seriously consider recycling.
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