Frequently Asked Questions

Why are mobile phones so harmful to the environment?

Mobile phones are made up of many toxic substances. The elements contained in a mobile phone include arsenic, beryllium, cadmium, copper, lead, mercury and zinc. These poisonous substances can leach from decomposing waste in landfill and seep into groundwater, contaminate the soil and enter the food chain. While these substances appear in a relatively small amount in a single mobile phone, consider the scale of the problem with 1.75 billion people worldwide (16.5 million in Australia)* using and disposing of mobile phones on average every 12-18 months.

(*Based on 2004 statistics. Source: CIA World Factbook 2006) 

Do I include my battery and charger in returning my phone for recycling?

Yes, unless you can re-use them yourself or give to someone who can, you can return them for recycling. The mobile phone recycler will recycle the parts they can from the battery and charger. Mobile phone batteries contribute significantly to a device's environmental impact. Chargers often weigh more than the phone, and contribute significantly to the amount of waste generated from unwanted phones. 

Can my SIM Card be recycled?

Yes, there are components in a SIM card which can be recycled, so if you have removed any private information, you can return it with the phone.

What will happen to any personal information left on the phone?

You should remove any personal information on the phone before returning it to be recycled. Any information left on the phone will not be used for any purpose. If the phone is in working order, the information is cleared when the phone is refurbished for re-use.

The return satchel says it can hold four phones but only one battery, and I must separate them in the different compartments. Why is this?

It is a requirement of Australia Post that the phone be separated from the battery when placed in the satchel. Batteries cannot interact with other electrical equipment in the same compartment of a satchel, therefore only one battery can be returned at a time. If you have more batteries to return, please request additional satchels.

Where will the donation to Clean Up Australia be spent?

A small donation (approximately $3) for every mobile phone returned through the Clean Up Mobile Phones program goes to Clean Up Australia. This money is goes directly to funding our campaigns to clean up, fix up and conserve the environment.

Why are the phones re-used as opposed to just recycled?

Avoidance is the first and most important environmental principal, particularly when it comes to waste. By re-using items such as mobile phones, you have avoided the need to produce a new one. Where phones cannot be re-used, recycling is an important step towards waste reduction. The energy and raw materials used to produce millions of new mobile phones contributes to CO2 emissions and global warming.

According to the Basel Convention and the Mobile Phone Partnership Initiative (MPPI) guidance document published in November 2006 it is believed that "Re-use, directly or via repair or refurbishment is usually the preferable option over recycling and disposal from an environmental perspective. Re-use can extend product life and means less environmentally damaging extraction, less energy consumption and less waste. Re-use of second-hand equipment can also often mean a lower price for products, thus increasing accessibility for more people who might not otherwise be able to afford the product."

By re-using and recycling components of old phones, the overall environmental impact of this waste stream can be minimised.

What happens to the phone once it is returned?

All mobile phones collected and returned on behalf of Clean Up Australia are sent directly to our recycling partner, Aussie Recycling Program (ARP). At ARP they are scanned to record their identification number for tracking purposes, tested for functionality and sorted into functional and non-functional phones. The functional phones are sent overseas for re-use and the non-functional phones are recycled. Visit www.arp.net.au

How are the phones recycled?

The phones are sent to MRI (visit www.mri.com.au), one of Australia's leading e-waste recyclers. They are separated into their different components, nearly all of which can be recycled. For example; the Printed Circuit Board (or 'PCB') contains copper, gold, lead, cadmium, silver and nickel. The gold and silver recovered can be made into jewellery. 300 grams of gold re-used saves mining 110 tonnes of gold ore.

What happens to the phones which are sent overseas?

The phones which are still working are refurbished and sent for re-use in countries which can benefit from the lower cost of access to telecommunications. These countries include:

• Pakistan
• India
• Indonesia
• South Africa
• Syria
• Tonga

When the phones are refurbished they are as good as new ones, which means the recipients of re-used phones are not only getting affordable access to communications, they are avoiding having to buy a new product first hand from a supplier. By re-using a phone, you are extending the life of that mobile phone by up to 5-7 years.

The end of life treatment of all mobile phones (both new and re-used) is in accordance with that country's practices. This means while many countries are fast working towards establishing recycling systems, some are not yet able to be recycled. The phones are sometimes sent to nearby countries which do recycle or provide safe disposal.

Can I recycle landline or cordless phones?

You can recycle these items however they cannot be recycled through a mobile phone recycling program such as Clean Up Mobile Phones. You can actually recycle anything which 'plugs in' through an e-waste recycler. In most cases, there is a charge attached to recycling electronic items, owing to the fact that there is a large amount of labour required to separate the components of the equipment into different recycling streams.

Click here for Clean Up Australia's list of e-waste recyclers, or speak to your local council as they will sometimes organise free e-waste drop off days.

How can Clean Up Australia help me organise a collection of mobile phones?

As well as providing individual return satchels, Clean Up Mobile Phones can help you organise a large collection. We can provide information, advice and materials to help you promote your collection to staff or customers. We can also provide the means to return a large amount of phones. Please refer to the 'What can I do?' section on mobile phones by clicking here. Alternatively you can call 02 9552 6177 or email mobilephones@cleanup.com.au for more information.

What does the future hold for mobile phones and e-waste?

Many companies now recognise the growing waste problem created by the high turnover of electrical and electronic equipment. It would be hoped that the manufacturers of phones would be looking to build phones which last longer than a couple of years. However, with technology moving so fast and the drive to sell more phones this may not be the most immediate solution.

Fortunately some technological advances will benefit the waste problem such as an alternative to the LCD display screen being developed by a number of companies including Sanyo, which is based on organic light-emitting diodes. This is a much simpler technology than LCD and would be cheaper, contain no mercury, be lightweight and less energy intensive to produce.

There is much work being done on the international stage to curb the growing e-waste problem. The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal is the most comprehensive global environmental agreement on hazardous and other wastes. The Convention has 170 Parties and aims to protect human health and the environment against the adverse effects resulting from the generation, management, transboundary movements and disposal of hazardous and other wastes. The Basel Convention came into force in 1992. For more information visit http://www.basel.int  

The European Commission's Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive aims to tackle this fast increasing waste stream and complements European Union measures on landfill and incineration of waste. Increased recycling of e-waste will limit the total quantity of waste going to final disposal. Producers will be responsible for taking back and recycling electrical and electronic equipment. This will provide incentives to design electrical and electronic equipment in an environmentally more efficient way, which takes waste management aspects fully into account. Consumers in Europe will be able to return their equipment free of charge. In order to prevent the generation of hazardous waste, the WEEE Directive requires the substitution of various heavy metals (lead, mercury, cadmium, and hexavalent chromium) and brominated flame retardants (polybrominated biphenyls (PBB) or polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE)) in new electrical and electronic equipment put on the market from 1 July 2006. For more information visit http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/weee/index_en.htm

Australia needs to regulate standards for design and recycling of electronic products. A national free take back and recycling scheme would provide a great mechanism for the community to take action and divert these products from landfill. Producers levied at the point of import to Australia could raise funds for this program.

With the scale of the problem increasing exponentially, mobile phones and e-waste need to be a priority for government in addressing waste concerns. With 17 million Australian's updating their mobile phone on average every 12-18 months, this is an urgent and important problem to address.