Eight million old mobile phones in drawers
(Thomson Reuters ONE) -
(Fornebu, 5 March 2012): 700 sports clubs are volunteering all over Norway to
collect old mobile phones for recycling. The volunteer effort starts today as a
joint venture between Telenor and the Norwegian Confederation of Sports (NIF).
Studies show Norwegians have more than eight million old mobile phones lying
around their homes.
A recent study carried out for Telenor by Norstat indicates that almost eight
out of ten Norwegians have one or more old or used mobile phones lying in their
drawers. This adds up to more than eight million mobile phones.
"Norway has excellent mobile phone coverage all over the country. Norwegians are
privileged to be able to enjoy the latest in mobile phone technology. More than
two million new mobile phones are purchased each year in Norway, but only a
fraction of the old phones have been returned for reuse or recycling. This is
why Telenor arranges an annual collection campaign in collaboration with the
Norwegian Confederation of Sports to gather as many old mobile phones for
recycling as possible," says Berit Svendsen, CEO for Telenor Norway.
The study shows that 76 percent of Norwegians have one or more used mobile
phones in their junk drawers, and two out of ten have more than four old mobile
phones lying around the house.
Many people are willing to contribute to help the environment
Even if this latest study indicates that we have many old phones at home, nine
out of ten said that they would happily help protect the environment by
recycling these old phones. Just as many people said they were willing to donate
their old phones to a sports club.
"This is good news for the environment, but it will also help clubs that are
willing to assist us today in this campaign. These clubs earned six million
kroner last year through the volunteer campaign, and we believe there is an even
better opportunity this year to improve those results," says Svendsen in
Telenor.
700 sports clubs around Norway are ready to help
Telenor will donate 35 kroner to the club for each old mobile phone a club
collects. Børre Rognlien, president of the Norwegian Confederation of Sports,
said the Confederation managed to get 700 clubs involved this year from all over
Norway; 200 more than last year.
He thinks this kind of campaign is a great way for sports clubs to earn money
for their teams, at the same time as they are doing something positive for the
environment.
Hoping for a new record
Telenor was able to collect more than 180,428 used mobile telephones last year.
Of these, 174,788 were collected by sports clubs. This is an all time high for
Norway.
"The goal for this year's campaign is to break that record by a good margin,"
says Børre Rognlien.
Telenor and NIF hope the sports clubs will be able to bring in at least 230,000
old and used mobile phones this year.
"When studies indicate that so many old phones are just lying around in people's
junk drawers and homes, we think our goal this year is quite possible. Together
with help from the sports clubs knocking on doors we are making it easy for
people to contribute," says Svendsen.
A safe way to help
The used phones are collected in special collection bags so the phones cannot be
removed once they are placed inside the bag. Once the bags are full they are
sent to a collection site to be counted and registered before they are sent to
Telenor's recycling partner Regenersis Inc. in UK. Regenersis is ISO 14001
certified and has one of the largest recycling plants in Europe. The telephones
that can be reused are restored for resale in new markets, and any remaining
useless phones are recycled and destroyed. All the data on the phones is erased
and any SIM cards or memory cards are summarily destroyed.
"More than 90 percent of an old mobile phone can be used in some form of new
production. I encourage everyone to dig through their junk drawers to find their
old mobile phones to help the environment," concludes Berit Svendsen.
Facts about the study:
When asked how many old mobile phones people had lying around at home, they
answered:
* Seven percent said they had six or more old mobile phones lying around at
home
* Five percent said they had five old mobile phones lying around at home
* Seven percent said they had four old mobile phones lying around at home
* Fourteen percent said they had three old mobile phones lying around at home
* Nineteen percent said they had two old mobile phones lying around at home
* Twenty-four percent said they had one old mobile phone lying around at home
* Twenty-four percent said they did not have any old mobile phones lying
around at home
Source: Norstat
Facts about how used mobile telephones can be reused:
* Telenor recycles old and used mobile phones in collaboration with the
Norwegian Confederation of Sports, through Telenorbutikken, and you can
order a return envelope to send your phone by mail, which can be ordered
using this link: www.telenor.no/gjenbruk.
* There are 700 sports clubs willing to collect old mobile phones in the
spring of 2012. You can take a look at the list of sports clubs that will be
participating in this campaign, listed by county, at this link:
www.idrett.no
* The used mobile phones that are collected will be registered and counted by
Alternativ Data AS in Oslo before being sent to Telenor's international
recycling partner, Regenersis, in Great Britain. This company is
environmentally certified for such work and complies with strict routines
for security and handling environment waste.
* The contract with Regenersis applies to all of Telenor's companies. As of
today, Telenor has a mobile phone return and recycling scheme available in
Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Montenegro, Serbia, Malaysia and
Thailand.
* The used mobile phones will either be recycled or processed for reuse.
* All surplus earnings from the programme are returned to sports clubs and
charitable organizations that show an interest in environmental protection.
Contact info:
Kristine Meek, Corporate responsibility manager in Telenor Norway / Tel.:
+47 918 85 405 / e-mail:kristine.meek(at)telenor.com
Morten Schønfeldt, marketing director for Norwegian Confederation of Sports /
Tel.: +47 922 00 878 / e-mail:morten.schonfeldt(at)idrettsforbundet.no
This announcement is distributed by Thomson Reuters on behalf of
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(i) the releases contained herein are protected by copyright and
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(ii) they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and
originality of the information contained therein.
Source: Telenor via Thomson Reuters ONE
[HUG#1591151]
Unternehmensinformation / Kurzprofil:
Datum: 05.03.2012 - 06:30 Uhr
Sprache: Deutsch
News-ID 121334
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