02 January 2009

Take Back and Recycle
Nokia's Voluntary Recycling Programme

Nokia India has announced ‘Take Back’ program which is aimed at educating mobile phone users on the importance of recycling.

Nokia’s ongoing commitment to the environment and huge effort to encourage the proper recycling of unwanted electronics to further reduce their environmental impact definitely deserves high applaud and attention.

As a part of this initiative, Nokia encourage mobile phone users to dispose their used handsets and accessories such as charges and handsets, regardless of the brand, at any of the recycling bins set up across Nokia Priority Dealers and Nokia Care Centers.

Nokia supports the concept of individual producer responsibility. In order for us to carry out our own responsibilities we need others in the value chain, like consumers and retailers, to commit to bring back obsolete mobile devices and accessories for responsible recycling. Such co-operation eventually leads to a situation where significant drivers for environmentally optimized product desing enabling easier recycling would become commonplace, bringing further benefits for consumers, producers and the environment.

A Nokia survey across 13 countries has showed that only a mere 17 per cent of the cellular users in India were aware that the handset could be recycled. The awareness quotient was the lowest in India. "The company will be planting a tree for every handset dropped into these recycling bins and giving out a surprise gift as well," Nokia said in a statement.

The highlight of the survey was that despite the fact that people on an average each owned around five phones; very few of these were being recycled once they are no longer used. Only 3 per cent said they had recycled their old phone.

Instead the majority, 44 per cent, are simply being kept at homes and never used. Others are giving their mobiles another life in different ways, passing on their old phones to friends or family or by selling their used devices.

Globally, half of those surveyed didn't know phones could be recycled like this, with awareness lowest in India at 17 per cent and Indonesia at 29 per cent, and highest in the UK at 80 per cent and 66 per cent in Finland and Sweden.

"The take-back campaign aims to increase awareness of the concept of recycling. If people no longer need their mobile devices, they can bring it back to Nokia for recycling and it can put it to good use - 100 percent of the materials in the phones can be recovered and used to make new products or generate energy," the company statement added.

According to Nokia India's VP and managing director D Shivakumar, the campaign offered the company an unique opportunity to make an impact that goes beyond its own business. "Our vision is a world where everyone being connected can contribute to sustainable development. As responsible leaders, we want to drive best practices in our industry. Achieving environmental leadership means minimising our own environmental footprint and encouraging recycling is a step in this direction," he added.