ZTE is China's largest producer of telecommunications devices. While it's certainly not unusual for a company of ZTE's size and power to have an in-house recycling program, what is unusual is their design of production and manufacturing processes which minimize their environmental impact. For example, many of ZTE's mobile phones use modular parts, which are readily interchangeable between units which makes it easier to recycle old mobile phones. This lowers the production and material cost, as well as streamlining the production process. This also means that when recycling mobile phones, a ZTE phone is more likely to have a part that ... Full Story

Vodafone, headquartered in England is the second largest mobile telecommunications group in the world. Servicing clients in several different markets, Vodafone is dedicated to making the world a better place through the promotion of mobile phone recycling. Vodafone has not only promoted recycling but has taken and extra step in working with charitable organizations to aid these efforts. In 2005, Vodafone partnered with England’s National Autistic Society to collect phones. All money received from the recycling of these mobile phones was donated to the non-profit organization that works with autistic children in the UK. Vodafone donations are completed through a third ... Full Story

Following a declaration of bankruptcy in late 2006 Korean owned VK Mobile closed its doors. While they are no longer providing new devices for consumers, VK mobile still has phones in operation today. Over the course of time these phones will become obsolete or stop working which means consumers will be forced to throw their VK mobiles in the bin. Of course, there are other options for VK mobile phone users such as recycling. Due to increasing environmental concerns mobile phone manufacturers are now being pressured into promoting mobile phone recycling programs. These programs, which are in place around the world, ... Full Story

How convenient would it be if you got an envelope to send back your old phone when you purchased a new one? You wouldn’t have to waste valuable time running around town trying to locate a mobile phone recycling drop off box. You could just drop your old phone in the mail and never worry about it landing in a landfill site somewhere. Sounds like a great idea, right? That’s what Virgin Mobile thought too. Recently this company started including envelopes to be used for the recycling of your mobile phone in the boxes of all new phones ... Full Story

Most mobile phone users have a hard time paying full retail price for new phones. With prices for smart phones and web enabled phones increasing each year most wait until they are eligible for a contract upgrade before they commit to a new device. There are a select few that can and will pay several thousand pounds for a new mobile phone; these consumers are the proud owners of Vertu mobile phones. Vertu has been providing state of the art mobile phones with cool services such as concierge for nearly a decade to those living in Europe. While only a small ... Full Story

You just purchased the newest greatest mobile phone but now don’t know what to do with the old one. Well, if you are a customer with a Toshiba mobile phone, computer, PDA, or Camera your life just got easier. As part of the Toshiba commitment to reducing waste they have started offering a trade in program that allows for mobile phone recycling as well as the recycling of other electronic items. Consumers who are interested can log onto the Toshiba website and see if their electronic item can be traded in for money or credit toward a new device. Credits ... Full Story

There are very few mobile companies that have their own in house recycling program. Most just take advantage of services that allow you to recycle your phone for cash or rely on third party companies to collect and recycle your mobile phone. While these programs are great, T-Mobile has gone the extra mile to become one of only a handful of manufacturers with their own programs in place. The T-Mobile Handset recycling program encourages T-Mobile users, along with users of other manufactured devices to drop off their old unused mobile phones for recycling. Customers can participate at any T-Mobile retail store ... Full Story

As more and more mobile phone companies come on the market, selling over a billion new mobile phones total each year, it's easy to see why landfills are filling up with millions of pounds of waste mobile electronics. Mobile electronics are very dangerous when put in a landfill site, not only because of the flammability of their batteries, but because of the toxicity of the devices themselves. Many of these devices contain palladium, trace amounts of arsenic, and other unfriendly substances. While they're perfectly safe to use, mobile phones contain a toxic mixture that can leech out of them as they ... Full Story

In the last year Sony has come to realise that consumer waste, especially waste created by mobile phones, is growing rapidly and has made a commitment to help try and decrease this problem. Beginning in late 2007 Sony partnered with electronics recycling centres to provide consumers in the United States and Canada with a safe option for disposing of their unused mobile phones. The Sony Take Back Recycling program worked with Waste Management to provide nearly 100 drop off locations for mobile phone recycling across the nation. The main goal of this program is to offset new products with the ... Full Story

Sony Ericsson has long been a leader in the development and implementation of mobile phone recycling programs. They recognized the problem of impending climate changes and over a decade ago began offering end-of-life recycling services for their products. This came even before the EU resolution demanding that mobile phone companies offer company-sponsored and funded recycling of mobile phones. Sony Ericsson participates in most of the optional schemes in many countries around the world. Sony Ericsson is committed to working with all EU countries, as well as the US, to reduce and recycle mobile phone waste. In addition to these recycling steps, ... Full Story

Since 1993, Sierra Wireless, a Canadian company that produces wireless aircards for laptops and mobile devices, has been interested in helping maintain the environment in which we live. The company's aircards allow communication between mobile devices such as laptops to access the internet over cellular networks. While not a traditional mobile phone, these devices nonetheless do, by necessity, contain a number of harmful chemicals. Because of this, it's important that, when the time comes to upgrade your aircard you do it responsibly. Sierra offers a number of recycling options, many of which are free to the customer. In Europe, the EU ... Full Story

When was the last time you thought about your old mobile phones? Have you ever considered what happens to them after you throw them in the rubbish? If you are like most mobile users you probably never dreamed that there would be a day when mobile phone recycling would be mandatory. We haven’t reached that point yet, but many countries and several states have made mobile phone recycling programs one of the top environmental issues. So why the push for these recycling programs? Each year millions of pounds of electronic waste end up in landfills across the globe and over time ... Full Story