News - Bega Merimbula Eden Bermagui Tathra Pambula

Bega Valley Shire Council has joined forces with WSN Environmental Solutions and MobileMuster to provide residents with a free service to recycle their old mobile phones without even leaving home.

Residents will be able to recycle their old mobile phones, batteries, chargers and accessories simply by placing them into the yellow recycling satchels being delivered to Shire households over the coming weeks and putting the satchel into their yellow-lidded recycling bin.

Council’s waste services manager David Basil said that with more than 80% of mobile phone users keeping or passing on their previous mobile phone when they bought a new phone, there was an estimated 14,000 handsets stored in cupboards and drawers in the Bega Valley Shire, just waiting to be recycled.

“This represents about 2.8 tonne of plastics and metals that could be recycled into new items like plastic fence posts, stainless steel and jewellery,” Mr Basil said.

With many people receiving new mobile phones this Christmas, now is the perfect time to recycle your old mobile phones.

“Once the phones are collected, they are separated from the recycling stream at WSN’s Moruya materials recycling facility and sent to MobileMuster for dismantling and recycling.

“Residents simply follow a three-step plan to recycle their old mobiles:
1.Round up all your old mobiles and associated accessories including chargers and batteries at home;
2.Place them in the yellow satchel/s provided as per the instructions on the satchel; and
3.Put them in your yellow-lidded recycling bin with your bottles, cans and glass.

“Alternatively, you may take them to a Council office, library or waste management facility near you.”

Mr Basil said that by recycling and reusing the metals and plastics in mobile phones, residents could help avoid nearly 90% of the greenhouse gases normally emitted in the process of mining and refining the same metals from ore and plastics from petroleum by-products.

Recycling mobile phones would also keep potentially harmful substances out of landfill.

He reminded residents to ensure that all personal information is deleted from the handset and that the SIM card is removed and cut up before being placed in the satchel.

All mobiles phones are recycled to the highest environmental standards. None are refurbished and sold for reuse.

MobileMuster is a not for profit program, funded voluntarily by mobile handset manufacturers and network service providers. For more information go to www.mobilemuster.com.au