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Despite upgrading mobile phones regularly, it seems that we are reluctant to get rid of our old phones, creating a stockpile of old, unused mobile phones worth over £1bn, according to a new study by T-Mobile.
In response to these findings T-Mobile is launching a mobile phone recycling scheme where anyone can return their old mobile via a freepost bag, thereby reducing waste and earning money either for charity or themselves.
The research estimates that, with each of us having at least one or two spare phones lying about, there are approximately 52.3 million mobile phones gathering dust in drawers and cupboards, with each redundant handset worth an average of £22.40.
"With a stockpile of over 52 million handsets sitting redundant at home, there is an opportunity for all mobile phone owners to get their share of this £1 billion," said Devine Kofiloto, principal analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media.
"The issue of mobile phone recycling has been discussed across the industry for several years. Now is the time for people to realise that they can do their bit and raise money either for charity or themselves at the same time."
Under the scheme, anyone who wishes to recycle an old phone, regardless of network, can pick up a recycling bag at a T-Mobile store and customers will receive one automatically when they buy a new phone.
A T-Mobile spokesman told vnunet.com that the instructions on the recycling bag tell users to remove the SIM card and to delete all information from the phone before sending it in to minimise the risk of data falling into the hands of fraudsters.
The phones are also magnetically wiped at the processing centre and any SIM cards that have not been removed will be destroyed.
"The great thing about this scheme is that you don't have to give anything up to do something good. Anyone can put their old phone in our freepost bag and reduce waste and make money, either for charity or themselves, as part of the process," said Jim Hyde, CEO of T-Mobile UK
The phones will either be refreshed and resold in emerging markets or broken down and recycled. In return, T-Mobile will give each customer, or a charity of their choice, up to £80 per phone.
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Posted: 2007-08-08 19:49:06
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Sounds like a good deal to me. It's a fact that we accumulate old phones... right now i'm aware of at least 3 relics (an ancient NEC, complete with 2inch aerial, and two busted Motorolas) in my workshop's glorybox which i couldn't give away even if i tried.
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Posted: 2007-08-09 11:36:00
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They did this in NL last year, basically a good idea, but in NL they gave a very small amount. When the phone was in a reasonable condition, you could get more than twice as much by selling it on an online marketplace.
And they didn't give anything for a phone in very bad condition, or a non-working one.
Dunno how they're going to do this now in the UK.
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Posted: 2007-08-09 13:19:31
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The problem is there's a perfectly good market for anything remotely decent on ebay, older but working phones are usually kept for spare/emergency or just nostalgia value, and broken phones aren't any good to anyone anyway - so they can send as many recycling bags as they like, they're probably not going to get much back.
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t28s -> t39m -> t68i -> P800 -> P910i -> M600i
[ This Message was edited by: Boinng on 2007-08-09 12:33 ]
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Posted: 2007-08-09 13:32:49
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Hell, send them all to me!
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Posted: 2007-08-09 13:38:46
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