Nokia Recycling Program Envisions A Greener Pakistan

Nokia recently kicked-off a two month long Mobile Phone Take Back and Recycling Campaign in collaboration with Ufone, Unilever, Radio FM 91, ARY Music, Orient Advertising and United Media.

All the companies involved in the campaign joined hands to improve the environmental awareness in Pakistan and to provide an easily accessible solution for responsible recycling of mobile phones, accessories, chargers and mobile batteries of all brands.

Recycling is processing old materials into something new in order to prevent wasting useful material, to cut down on energy consumption and to reduce the need for waste land filling that can spoil Pakistan’s environment.

People all across Pakistan are contributing to the campaign by recycling old and redundant or even broken mobiles that are no longer of use. Taking part in this campaign is easy: simply bring your old mobile devices, chargers, batteries and accessories of all brands to one of the 33 Nokia Care Centres or Ufone Sales and Service Centres across the country.

The campaign will give a free gift hamper from Unilever and a chance to win a brand new Nokia N8 device only if person will drop off a mobile phone for recycling (all brands accepted).

Nokia Mobile Phone Take Back and Recycling Program rolled out in Pakistan during 2010. At this point in time, Nokia aims to increase awareness about why it is important to recycle your old phone and how easy it can be done.

Talking about Nokia’s contribution to environment in Pakistan, Adeel Hashmi, Communications Manager, Nokia Pakistan & Afghanistan, said,

Nokia has a comprehensive sustainability and environmental strategy and recycling is one of the key aspects covered. We understand that leadership means responsibility, that’s why at Nokia we consider the environment in everything we do and even go beyond our own operations and products: we want to give that chance to our consumers as well because we understand that a power of a billion people can do a lot of good to our environment.

If the 4.6 billion people using mobile phones recycled just one unused phone at the end of its life, together we would save nearly 370,000 tons of raw materials and reduce greenhouse gases to the same effect as taking 6 million cars off the road.

According to Nokia’s global consumer survey on recycling, only 3% of people said they had recycled their old phone – whereas 44% of old mobile phones are lying at home for no use and not being recycled. The survey revealed that one of the main reasons why so few people recycle their mobile phones is because they simply don’t know that it is possible to do so.

Mobile devices and accessories contain raw materials which – if recycled in a responsible high standard process – can be reused in many ways to make new things, such as musical instruments or even dental fillings. 100 percent of the materials in Nokia devices can be recovered and used to make new products or generate energy.

Commenting on the campaign kick-off, Reza Burney, Country Care Manager Nokia Pakistan & Afghanistan said,

“It is an exciting moment for Nokia to bring an opportunity for Pakistani consumers to make a positive contribution to the environment. Nokia has more than 5,000 recycling points globally in almost 100 countries. In Pakistan, we initiated an awareness drive to help people understand recycling and its benefits, and in addition we facilitate that all collected devices, chargers, accessories and batteries are recycled in a responsible way according to high environmental standards.

By working together, small individual actions can add up to make a big difference and we have made recycling old mobile phones very simple for people. All they need to do is drop in the old mobile phone, charger, battery or accessories of any brand at one of our collection points and we’ll take care of the rest.

Nokia does neither resell the phones nor carry out refurbishment business as there is no control over the quality or safety of the phones after restoration. Instead, Nokia works with carefully selected, approved recyclers who reclaim materials according to highest environmental and international standards.

Complementing its green initiative, Nokia has also introduced a number of green apps on its Ovi Store that help people contribute to a better environment through fun activities. A complete list of environment friendly apps is available on www.ovi.com/dogood website.

More information about Nokia’s Recycling program is available on www.nokia.com/werecycle.