Mobile phone recycling has become one of the fastest growing segments of the recycling industry, as companies are popping up all over the world to handle the massive amount of unused mobile phones that are sitting around drawers. The UK alone is estimated to have at least ninety million unused phones and in America there are almost twice as many phones as humans. Although phone manufacturers agree that this is a major problem, they differ on the ways to solve it. Sony Ericsson has been at the forefront of reusing mobile phone components in medical equipment, cameras, and other electronic devices, but some vendors are not sure that they are going to follow the same path.
According to a spokesman from Sony, many businesses are finding that it is much less expensive to use recycled components rather than building the device from scratch. Things like cameras, color displays, touch screens from old mobile phones can all be recycled and reused in a variety of electronic devices.
There are already millions of recycled Sony components on the market today. However, some of Sony’s competitors are unsure whether or not they will follow. Nokia has expressed concerns about reusing and reselling components to third party manufacturers over concerns with safety and ethics. Instead, Nokia has focuses on recycling as the primary means of keeping mobile phones out of landfills. Nokia has set up an innovative take back program where customers can drop off their used mobile phones at any of Nokia’s locations.
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