India’s burgeoning use of mobile phones has been in the news lately and there is much concern about the environmental and human effects of uncontrolled recycling. New regulated recycling regimes appear at first glance to be an encouraging development, but awareness of these is pitifully low among consumers. In fact, of all countries surveyed in a recent study by Nokia, India came bottom at 17%. Over 8 out of 10 people there do not even think about recycling their old mobile phones.
Some of the main mobile phone manufacturers have introduced take-back policies, whereby they collect old phones and pass them on to authorised recyclers. However, this is having limited success because of the very poor awareness levels.
Clearly, more publicity is needed and Nokia has made a start with its ‘Planet Ke Rakhwaale’ take-back and recycling campaign which was launched earlier this year. The programme is designed to get people to place their old handsets and chargers into recycling bins located in Nokia Care Centres. There are 1,350 bins available and any make of phone can be dropped off. Nokia announced it had collected over 16 tonnes by April. This equates to upwards of half a million phones and accessories.
Samsung also has in place an initiative in 216 locations. They have partnered a recycling agency approved by the government to recycle mobiles and so far they have been encouraged by the response of consumers. The next step will be to expand the programme to encompass Samsung’s other electronic products.
Sony Ericsson says it has a mobile phone take-back policy but the details remain unclear.