October 16, 2006—A group of mobile manufacturers, network operators, suppliers, recyclers, and consumer and environmental organizations, led by Nokia, has committed to improving the environmental performance of mobile phones and to do more to raise consumer awareness and participation in take-back and recycling.
The group was created as part of a European Commission pilot project looking at how different industries could work with stakeholder groups to reduce the environmental impact of their products throughout their lifecycle.
Nokia proposed the mobile phone sector to the Commission. Other members of the voluntary group are Motorola, Panasonic Mobile Communications, France Telecom/Orange, Vodafone, TeliaSonera AB, Intel, Epson, Spansion and Umicore, and environmental experts from the WWF, the Finnish Environmental Institute, the UK’s Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and the European Consumers’ Organisation (BEUC).
The group has agreed upon a series of new initiatives to reduce the environmental impact of mobile phones. These include reducing energy consumption by such actions as equipping phones with reminders to unplug chargers once the battery is recharged; eliminating the use of specific materials of concern, including certain flame retardants and phthalates; improving the amount of phones collected through take-back schemes and recycling; and giving consumers more environmental information about products.
