Pia Tanskanen

Mobile phone take back learning's from various initiatives

Takeback of obsolete electronics products has been in the focus of the environmental discussions for nearly 10 years. The European Union has published the WEEE directive which is implemented now in nearly all EU27 countries. In addition to The EU, the State of California has passed similar legislation with 34 additional states considering take back legislation. The trend continues in Canada, China and Latin America. The driving force for this is the increasing amount of consumer electronic products in the world and the desire to direct those products at the end of life to responsible recycling instead of landfill. Mobile phones are rich in metals and other natural resources allowing for economically viable recycling capturing resources such as gold, platinum, palladium and copper. One of the bottlenecks in the recycling chain has been the low return rates of the used products at the end of useful life. Consumers tend to want to keep the old products or are unaware of the take back vehicles available to them. This paper presents case studies from two countries where a variety of take back initiatives for mobile phones are in place. Raising awareness and providing easy take back options are explored as key factors in increasing the return rate of used electronics devices.