UAE | Environment

Nokia extends mobile phone recycling scheme to the UAE

People typically have five mobile phones cluttering up drawers waiting to be resold or just left to collect dust, but now Nokia has extended its recycling scheme to the UAE to give old phones a purpose.

  • By Emmanuelle Landais, Staff Reporter
  • Published: 23:46 May 24, 2009
  • Gulf News

  • Two women put phones into a Nokia recycle box. Nokia andthe EEG are starting the Take Back Programme to help raiseawareness about recycling mobile devices and accessories.
  • Image Credit: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Gulf News
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Dubai: People typically have five mobile phones cluttering up drawers waiting to be resold or just left to collect dust, but now Nokia has extended its recycling scheme to the UAE to give old phones a purpose.

Recycling boxes will be available across the UAE for people to drop their old and unwanted phones into and collect a voucher to download music from Nokia in return.

The phones will be sent to Europe to be taken apart and recycled by 10 Nokia approved companies with 80 centres between them.

Electronic waste, or E-Waste, is an issue for which a strategic plan needs to be drawn to deal with valuable materials, said Habiba Al Marashi, chairperson of the Emirates Environment Group (EEG), which has partnered with Nokia.

"The UAE is seen as a consumer society, a throw-away society - getting young generations to think sustainably is one of our biggest challenges. Initiatives like this makes economic sense as products are recycled which saves energy and resources," Habiba said.

Domestic waste alone in the Gulf Cooperation Council region amounts to 120 million tonnes with the UAE featuring highly among them. In Dubai, each resident produces 1.5 tonnes of waste a year, Habiba said.

According to a survey conducted by Nokia in 13 countries including in the UAE, only three per cent of people recycle their mobile phones, and three out of every four people added that they have not even thought about recycling their devices.

Nearly half were unaware that it is even possible to do so. In the UAE, around 65 per cent of people said they do not consider their mobile phone as something they can recycle and 59 per cent admitted they did not know it is even possible to do so. The Nokia and EEG Take Back Programme will show people otherwise.

According to Mia Ranta-aho, senior Environmental manager, at Nokia Middle East and Africa, 1 billion people use Nokia phones worldwide.

"If each of the three billion people globally owning mobiles brought back just one unused device we could save 240,000 tones of raw materials and reduce greenhouse gases to the same effect as taking four million cars off the road."

Around 80 per cent of a mobile phone can be recycled with plastics, precious metals and pollutants being reused to make new phones.

To see where the nearest drop box is go to: www.nokia.com/mea/environment

What is the strangest object you have recycled? Will people be encouraged to recycle if they were given something in return? Do you know of any other incentives that would encourage people to recycle?


Your comments


I think people must receive something in return for recycling electronic goods. An exchange scheme would be good where a small reduction could be given for purchase of a new item in exchange of a used item. Old mobiles could be given away at Mobile centres and new ones purchased with a small discount. Recycling boxes to drop old and unwanted phones and collecting voucher to download music from Nokia in return is an interesting option. Awareness about the need to recycle must be spread through radio and television channels. Incentives for recycling would definitely attract many people to join in and thus reduce waste.
Naina Nair
Sharjah,UAE
Posted: May 25, 2009, 13:05

Recycling is a good thing...but the information stored on the mobiles is another...I'm not sure if you all knew what we thought we deleted completely on our mobiles is actually still there...just like hard drives.....unless of course the recycyling process wouldn't be under a third party then it would be less risky.
Achilles Caballero
Dubai,UAE
Posted: May 25, 2009, 10:40

music can be downloaded from anywere on the web, instead of giving the music download vouchers, if they give money vouchers it will encourage people. and the money vouchers should also depend on the type of mobile which is given for recycle.
Abdul Basir
Sharjah,UAE
Posted: May 25, 2009, 10:08

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  1. The Nokia and EEG Take Back Programme

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