Check your desk drawers, those old cardboard boxes stacked under the stairs and the pockets of that silver ‘pleather’ jacket you bought back in 2001 and thought was cool. Have you found several abandoned and seriously outdated mobile phones? Thought so.
Congratulations, you are among the 97pc of consumers who have not recycled their old handsets (yes, I’m guilty too), according to Nokia’s latest research among 6,500 phone owners across 13 countries worldwide.
It was found that three out of four people haven’t even given any thought to the possibility of recycling their old phones, while shockingly, nearly 50pc of those questioned didn’t even realise it was possible to do so in the first place.
“It is clear from this survey that when mobile devices finally reach the end of their lives 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 programmes.”
Terho said if all three billion of us brought back just one old phone for recycling we would collectively save 240,000 tonnes of raw materials that could be extracted from the handsets instead of mined from the earth’s surface.
This would also equate to taking four million cars off the road in terms of reducing greenhouse gases.
The survey found that on average most people had owned five phones in their lifetime, so what are we doing with the four old ones? We’re not even dumping them in the bin or landfill – some 44pc of us are just letting them gather dust at home, while 16pc are selling them on.
So if you have an old phone, get yourself to a Nokia care point (your local Nokia store will direct you) or if you would rather contribute to charity, you can donate your old phones to the Jack & Jill Children’s Foundation, an organisation that raises money for care of infants born with severe developmental delays.
Either way, give up yer aul’ sims.
By Marie Boran
