A recent study by the International Data Corporation (IDC) has revealed that mobile phone manufacturers have a long way to go to to improve recycling rates. Industry rates are worryingly low and 10% is considered good.
IDC has announced its rankings for the five most sustainable mobile phone makers and has encouraged manufacturers to show some corporate responsibility by putting more effort into producing more environmentally sustainable devices. IDC consider it is essential that manufacturers focus on making disposal simpler and safer. There should also be much more emphasis on reuse of the billions of mobiles that have already been produced.
Apple appears in the top five and it recycles in 95 percent of the countries where it sells phones. Nokia is commended for recycling up to 80% of the materials contained in its devices. Sony Ericsson stood out for its efforts to make packaging greener, by producing lighter boxes that reduce transportation CO2 emissions by 80% compared with standard boxes and also including recycling mailers. LG and Samsung were the other mobile phone makers who made the top five.
IDC used five principal criteria to determine the environmental performance of manufacturers. These were packaging, energy, materials, product lifecycle and overall sustainability. In addition, they took into account 20 lesser criteria. IDC directly approached manufacturers and carried out inspections of packaging, devices and accessories. They also examined published corporate responsibility reports and other corporate and product environmental reports where available. Ratings and other information collected from interested third parties such as Greenpeace and Energy Star were also considered.