It seems that just encouraging mobile phone recycling for financial reward and for the environmental benefits is not enough, judging by the amount of unused handsets residing in people’s homes. The situation is calling for more and more innovative ways to persuade consumers to recycle their mobiles.
A mobile phone recycling scheme has been introduced in Australia that concentrates on re-use rather than breaking down phones, which tends to happen under long-established schemes such as “Mobile Muster” from the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association. The scheme also has the benefit of helping a charity.
Money4mobiles.com.au is a mobile phone recycler that encourages individual users or businesses to send in their old handsets in return for cash ranging from $1 to $500. However, users have the option to donate part of the sale to Make-A-Wish Australia, a charity which helps to grants the wishes of children with life threatening medical conditions.
Money4mobiles.com.au sends phones returned to them to places in the developing world such as India, Russia, South America and China. The aim is to re-use three-quarters of the phones received., Parts from any handsets not suitable for re-use can be used to fix any faulty phones sent in.
It is estimated that over 20 Million mobile phones are sitting around unused in Australia.