Sustainability

Making recycling easy

By James on 19 September 2008

MALAYSIA – If all of the 3 billion people in the world who own a mobile phone, recycled just one used device, it would have the same effect as taking 4 million cars off the road.

That’s according to Nokia Malaysia’s Nellie Abdullah who’s Nokia’s local environmental coordinator. She was talking to ZDNet writer Lee Min Keong at the launch of a new recycling initiative being trilled out there, using Kiosks to collect the phones.

The kiosks also double up as service centres, in that people can leave their device for a service, or for recycling (don’t want to get that one mixed up!) The trial is taking place in three locations in Malaysia and will run for six months. The whole thing is designed to make it easier for people to recycle

Now, I don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade here but there’s a fundamental problem with this concept (in my view). I don’t know how to solve it, but I’m pretty sure it exists. The kiosks are in three different, public, locations. The people’s phones are at home. Where’s the incentive for me to pick up my phone and take it there? I don’t see it. Sure, it’ll help the environment, but it’ll only have a big impact if my fellow sharers of the Globe join in the fun.

I reckon if I could solve that problem I’d be as rich as the guy who comes up with the cure for world hunger. Or at least as noble.

Any ideas to share?

Share and Enjoy:

Related posts:

Tags | Nokia, recycle, recycling

Post a comment

Gomcoite Says:
September 19th, 2008 at 9:52 am

Yeah, i told you guys that already. What wud i get to put my oldie in there?

Well, a quick start can be a launch event where you get a YOUTH icon to do it and the news channels cover the story and thus…. the recycling thing starts…

CHAPLIN Says:
September 19th, 2008 at 11:09 am

Well, I agree with Gomcoite about almost what he says, but of course they will not make a star event for recycling. LOL
That could be made by Nokia and other manufactures, if they made some spots around the world with celebs (yes, celebs) because that way they would not only catch people’s attention for recycling but also because it is someone famous that we knoe who Is making the publicity, so people in certain way would be influenced by them.

Steven Hoober Says:
September 19th, 2008 at 3:26 pm

Really? Electronic kiosks? Celebrity endorsements? The only way people are going to recycle is by making it easy and providing some incentive.

Easy is obvious. I have no idea of the take rate (I suspect not good as there are regular campaigns, with celebrities no less, to encourage use) but every mobile store I have been to for a long time has a 4 ft tall cardboard box with a slot in the top. Drop your phone in and it’s re-used for battered women shelters, and recycled if it’s too broken for re-use.

A better system has been the printer cartridge recycler system; every cartridge I’ve seen for a decade comes with a mailer, or a label you can stick on the box for the new one. Take the old cartridge and instead of tossing it, put it in the box you just vacated for the new one.

Incentives vary. For printer cartridges, the box thing works well; they have baked it into the instructions as the place to put the old cartridge without making a mess.

For mobiles, I think we haven’t found it yet. The issue is that they don’t feel disposable. They feel like consumer electronics, so everyone seems to want to keep them. So they sit, and maybe years later in a fit of cleaning you overcome the reluctance and toss it. In the trash.

Stores need to work harder to get people to recycle the phones at the point of new-device purchase. Most folks will have their phone, and immediately transfer service, so its the right place to do it. Mail-order phones can do the printer cartridge thing and include a padded envelope to mail it somewhere.