Nokia Survey: Only 3% of Old Phones Get Recycled

July 8th, 2008

According to a recent poll taken by Nokia, only 3% of people recycle their mobile phones even though most have several old devices lying around in drawers and cabinets that they no longer want! The survey also found that three out of every four people didn’t even know it was possible to recycle phones at all.  This may not sound like that big of a deal, but given the fact that over 3 billion people have Nokia cell phones alone, and given the fact that the average customer has owned 5 different mobile devices, the number of unused, un-recycled cell phones is staggering.  Markus Terho, Director of Environmental Affairs at Nokia, comments further in a Cellular News article:

“It is clear from this survey that when mobile devices finally reach the end of their lives that very few of them are recycled.  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 tons of raw materials and reduce greenhouse gasses 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.”

I never realized that phones could be recycled, or the impact that such an easy action could potentially have.  Nokia is doing a great service in building awareness, and I really do hope that this information reaches people.  All it takes is a trip to the nearest mobile store to play a part in preserving the future.

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