Envirophone urges reusing and recycling of mobile phones
Friday, May 6, 2011 - 09:20:47
A spokesperson for mobile recycling firm, Envirophone, has said that UK consumers need to not only look at recycling their old handsets but also reusing them, rather than simply leaving them to stagnate in a drawer or sending them off to the dump.
In 2010 about 27 million mobiles were sold to UK consumers and Envirophone's Jon Butler, said that this could result in three and a half thousand tonnes of hazardous waste being tipped into landfill sites in a particularly harmful, wasteful fashion.
At the moment it is estimated that a tenth of old phones are recycled by UK consumers and Mr Butler said that although Envirophone has dealt with more than 1.5 million of these over the last 12 months, it appreciates that there are a lot more phones out there which are going unused.
Mr Butler said that it is thought around 80 million fully functional mobiles are dotted around the UK, which means there is a great deal that can be done to ensure that they do not go to waste. The suggestion is that people do not always need to recycle their old phones immediately and might be sensible to reuse them by handing them to a friend or relative who is in need in the short term.
If there is nothing fundamentally wrong with a mobile when you upgrade to a newer model, then there is indeed no reason not to hand it down and there is no doubt that many people do this.
However, to get the maximum value for a mobile it is worth recycling it as quickly as possible after it has become obsolete for your purposes, so different situations may warrant different responses from consumers around the country when it comes to this matter.
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