Time is up for old mobile phones

August 15, 2007: Rapid technology advances in mobile phones has seen many models become obsolete and in most cases ending up as dust collectors.

As part of Keep Australia Beautiful Week, Bega Valley Shire Council is encouraging people to recycle old mobile phones, batteries and accessories.

Waste Services Manager David Basil said Council was supporting MobileMuster, the mobile phone industry’s official mobile phone recycling program and a major sponsor of KAB.

“We have MobileMuster stations located in our Bega office and all of our branch libraries and it is an environmentally friendly way to dispose of old phones,” Mr Basil said.

“People who recycle their mobile phones will help conserve valuable natural resources by recovering metals and plastics for reuse.

“More than 90% of the plastics and metals in mobile phones, batteries and accessories recovered during recycling can be turned into jewellery, stainless steel products and plastic fence posts.”

Keep Australian Beautiful Week runs from Monday, August 27 until Sunday September 2.

Photograph: Council’s Waste Manager David Basil and Customer Service staff Pam Macrae and Lorena Ferrier are encouraging people to dispose of old mobile phones at any one of the MobileMuster stations in Council’s offices.

Key mobile phone recycling facts: (figures current as of 30 June 2007)

• Australians upgrade or exchange their mobile phones every 18 to 24 months, resulting in approximately 16 million old mobile phones cluttering people’s homes and offices across Australia, of which 4 million no longer work
• Mobile phones are not biodegradable and contain small amounts of potentially hazardous substances such as cadmium in NiCad batteries which if not managed properly can harm the environment
• By recycling mobile phones, more than 90% of the mobile phone product materials can be extracted and reused such as plastics, gold, silver, copper and nickel
• MobileMuster aims to raise community participation and treble recycling levels to 1.5 million mobile phone and batteries a year by 2008
• 8.4 million handsets were shipped into Australia in 2006/2007
• 454 tonnes of handsets, batteries and accessories have been collected since the recycling program commenced was initiated by AMTA in late 1999. This includes 2.7 million batteries and handsets
• One tonne of mobile phone circuits can yield the same amount of precious metals as 110 tonnes of gold ore, 123 tonnes of silver bearing ore and 11 tonnes of copper sulphide ore