UK-based mobile phone recycler Zonzoo have joined forces with Dubai-based Enviroserve to collect and recycle old phones in the UAE.
Zonzoo has been operating since 2002 and operates so far in nine countries across Europe. The company is run by Colin Armstrong-Bell who has partnered with Enviroserve to find new ways to use the millions of old phones that are discarded in the UAE. He says: “I don’t care if people hand in their phones to protect the environment or to get some cash for it as long as the phone comes to me, I’m the environmental answer”
He aims to help people dispose of their old phones in an ethical manner and is looking for stores across the UAE to partner with. Armstrong-Bell’s goal is to collect 500 phones per day and in 18 months time he wants to collect 5,000 phones a day, or 1.8 million phones a year.
In the Middle East and North Africa over 120 million phones are introduced into the market per year and around 10 million of these are in the UAE.
According to Gulf News, mobile phone sales totalled over 34 million units in the Middle East and Africa region in the first quarter of 2010.
The introduction of mobile phone recycling sites means that it is easy to recycle your old phones especially as it is often more economical to buy a new phone rather than repair an old one.