There are approximately one billion mobile phones produced each year in the world contributing to a total ownership of 3.3 billion mobiles. Depending upon where they live, people upgrade their mobiles every two years or less. What happens to your old phone?
According to a study by Nokia, one in ten mobile owners in the UK recycle their phones. Most don't for the reason that they don't know how. There are a number of programmes and laws that are beginning to deal with this problem.
For example, California has had a mobile recycling law in effect since July 1, 2006 which requires retailers of mobiles to offer methods at the store of reuse, recycle or proper disposal. According to the state agency responsible for tracking mobile recycling rates figures that after the law was passed Californians recycled approximately 17% of their mobiles. See here. This rate, while not indicative of the whole of the US means an average of one out of every five mobiles is recycled.
So what happens to the rest of them? A large number of mobiles make their way to Africa. These 'recycled' mobiles often are optimised for US or Eurpean networks and don't necessarily offer the functionality needed by a Kenyan who travels and trades amongst a few different countries, mobile networks, and languages. Nor does it offer much help for someone who is illiterate or who doesn't know English, German, French or any of the other languages the mobile was originally programmed with.
Jan Chipchase is a designer who works for Nokia. Maybe the term that was applied to him fits better - he's an ethnographer of mobiles and mobile use. He presents a fascinating look at mobile upcycling in parts of Africa. That includes the need for a dual sim card that would allow a mobile to easily switch between networks, the need for a large phone book or multiple user phonebooks, weather reports, or pictographic buttons.
We have a hint of how the upcycling began as he indicates in his blog that: 'There is a thriving market for device repair services ranging from swapping out components to re-soldering circuit boards to reflashing phones in a language of your choice , naturally. Repairs are often carried out with little more than a screwdriver, a toothbrush (for cleaning contact points) the right knowledge and a flat surface to work on.'
This becomes even more interesting as in the US, Europe or Japan you aren't ever really offered the option of repairing your mobile. If it's broken on the most basic level you are directed to buy a new one as that would be cheaper than repairing the old one. In more advanced markets there's more formality. Delhi in India has the distinction of also offering a wide variety of mobile phone repair courses at training institutes such as Britco and Bridco turning out a steady flow of mobile phone repair engineers. The creative forces at work for the users of second and third-hand mobiles is astonishing and offers hope for the future uses and functions of the mobile phone.
And finally Nokia has expanded its recycle programme to catch the mobiles missed in the UK, Europe, and the US to offer recycling within Eastern Africa, it says here.
This is highly intuitive for a company's recycling initiative. Nokia is missing many of the mobiles in the US and Europe and discovering that the mobiles used throughout Africa are second or even third-hand phones. People often did not buy them through an authorized outlet and so recycling isn't an option because there's no information about how to do it. X
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