Mobile phones have been the subject of scrutiny in the UK in regards to recycling. They were included in the WEEE directive back in 2007 so legally cannot go in landfill (good news and I sometimes wonder how many still might end up there - I know the local tip AKA Recycling Centre in Bristol near us are pretty hot on all electrical waste and keep it separate to sort it).
The good thing about phones is economically there is obvious value in them and in our contract heavy system people update their handsets regularly. This has meant the recycling market of which Greensource Solutions is a part of has been eager to collect unwanted phones for over a decade. Charities often benefit too which is good.
Motorola has now unveiled their new handset, the W233 which their press release states is the Worlds first carbon neutral phone and its housing is made using plastics comprised of recycled water bottles and is 100 percent recyclable.
The packaging has also been minimised and plant based dyes used. It all sounds good so fair play to Motorola for putting their money into this and importantly the handset looks good too!
I hope the recycling industry will have no issues with reselling this handset in years to come - Lucy Siegle raised an interesting point in the Guardian recently where her recyclable mobile phone needed to go in an anaerobic digestor to break down properly - reuse first!!
