Positive impact of mobile recycling outlined by O2
Wednesday, April 19, 2017 - 10:20:36
In a recent interview with Edie ahead of a major industry conference O2 spokesperson, Rhea Horlock, said that it was important for all network providers to embrace the benefits of mobile phone recycling and try to make the culture of regular handset upgrades more sustainable.
She explained that there were problems associated with convincing mobile users to buy a new handset once every 12 to 24 months, both from a perspective that this increases the amount of e-waste that is generated and in terms of how this overlooks customers’ individual needs.
In the eight years since O2 set up its own mobile recycling service, it has made a significant impact on the experience available to customers and also on the environment. Paying back over £135 million in exchange for old phones has helped people enjoy lower costs when upgrading, while 10,000 tonnes of carbon emissions have been eliminated.
As well as setting up a dedicated recycling scheme, O2 has been instrumental in making second hand smartphones a popular option for people who want to upgrade, rather than requiring that everyone gets a brand new handset at the end of their contract.
Plenty of consumers have perfectly good devices at home which could be sold in return for cash and then refurbished so that they can re-enter the marketplace, rather than being recycled entirely or simply left dormant in a drawer somewhere, helping no one.
Horlock said that the mobile industry as a whole has a responsibility to work together with consumers to ensure that sustainability is an innate part of the life cycle of modern handsets. She admitted that the current state of play is not quite as eco-oriented as many would hope, but progress is being made and there are more options than ever for smartphone owners.
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