Donate your old mobile phone!

As true MTB students we know the importance of mobile phones… We are constantly calling, sending text messages… and last but not least: We are constantly online to check our e-mails and so much more!

Nearly everybody on this planet carries electronics, especially mobile phones. They are very small, but all together they have a huge impact on our planet. That’s why we should recycle them and think about how we are going to deal with our future problems caused by the enormous quantity of retired phones.

People replace their mobile phone, because they want a new one or because it is broken. However, they often forget to recycle their old mobile phones. In this way, more and more phones, containing toxic materials, are polluting our world. These materials can, for example, end up in our water or in the air, which is very dangerous.

The good news is: Old cell phones can be used in order to make new ones! By giving your old mobile phones a new life, the amount of waste materials can be deduced considerably. Why? If we recycle one phone that still works, we can reclaim everything we need to manufacture a new one. If it doesn’t work anymore, we can also take the working parts and combine them with usable parts of other phones. That means we don’t have to produce additional waste matter.

The video below shows us that cell phone brands already pay attention to what materials go into mobile phones… They are looking for materials that can be easily recycled at the end of their lives. Listen carefully to what Gary Duffy (Director Product Marketing, AT&T) says: “It all really starts with our customers and with the consumers. They have got to start that proces by donating their old used handsets…”

What about you, girls? Have you already donated your old handsets?

Elke