Mobile Recycling in Serbia

The “Green IT Globe” (granted by a local magazine for outstanding achievements in ICT), has been granted to Telenor Serbia, for collecting and recycling more than 76.000 old mobile phones (eight tons of electronic material) since 2007.

“Although we are not a large polluter and are not obliged to tackle this issue upon the law, we believe that we should do it, for ourselves and in line with the corporate values we follow, thus giving a signal to the local community. In 2010, we will launch a detailed process of introducing the ISO 14001 system which will enable us to operate in accordance with global regulations related to environmental protection.” says Sandra Štajner, Chief Communications Officer of Telenor in Serbia.

Telenor first to launch mobile recycling in Serbia

Telenor Serbia was the first company in the republic to launch a large campaign of recycling of old mobile phones. Through the campaign, Telenor actively participates in solving a growing issue of electronic waste and in raising the environmental awareness of the Serbian people.

“This is a pioneering job here, because there were no initiatives for organised collection and disposal of out-of-use mobile phone sets,” said Nenad Antic, marketing manager of Telenor Serbia.

More than 90 per cent of overall materials can be reused

The majority of mobile telecommunication users usually buy new mobile phone sets every other year. Consequently, a large number of old mobile phone sets ends up as regular waste. More than 90 per cent of overall materials could be recycled and reused. Batteries, which represent 15 to 30 percent of the materials, could significantly damage the environment. The consequences are double: discarding of old mobile phone sets also means discarding noble gases and metals, and this kind of electronic waste pollutes the environment, because it causes liberation of toxic matter, such as lithium and cadmium.