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Canberra Today 19°/24° | Tuesday, March 19, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

How many old phones are sitting around your home?

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MOBILEMUSTER wants Canberrans to think about their disused mobile phones as World Environment Day approaches.

“Did you know there are 377,458 old, broken or unused mobile phones stored in homes, offices and garages ready for recycling? That’s almost one mobile for every man, woman and child in Canberra,” said Rose Read, Recycling Manager at MobileMuster.

“Every Australian needs to take responsibility for their contribution to our ever mounting e-waste problem and this World Environment Day (June 5), is the perfect opportunity to collectively make an impact. If everyone dug out just one old mobile phone and recycled it, collectively we could make a significant difference,” Read continued.

MobileMuster has calculated that Canberra’s 377,458 old mobile phones and accessories could prevent the mining of 1,198 tonnes of precious metal ore. Environmentally, that’s the equivalent to planting 1,013 trees.

The same number of phones could also be turned into 45,526 aluminum cans and 1,128 plastic fence posts, as more than 90% of mobile phone components and materials recovered through recycling can be reused.

“If you want to lessen your contribution to Australia’s e-waste problem and help conserve our natural resources, all you have to do is drop-off your old mobiles and accessories at your local mobile phone retailer, visit mobilemuster.com.au to find your nearest one. Alternatively you can post them in using our free reply-paid recycling satchels available at any Australia Post outlet,” said Read.

Want to know more about how to recycle and manage e-waste? Here’s MobileMuster’s top tips for becoming e-waste free:

    1. Organise what you have: Knowing how many spare chargers, adapters and handsets you have will prevent you from making unnecessary purchases. Why buy more items than you need?

    2. Be ruthless: Will you ever use that old analogue mobile handset again? Probably not, it’s time to recycle it.

    3. Your phone has value: Know that your old mobile has value, but not as you think! It’s simply worthless gathering dust or sitting in the back of your drawer, when 90% of its parts and materials could be recycled and made into new objects.

    4. Stop making excuses: Recycling with MobileMuster is free and easy! Go to mobilemuster.com.au to find out how to recycle or take your old mobile into an Australian Post outlet.

    5. Educate yourself: If you really knew the environmental benefits of recycling your old unused mobile handsets, such as lessening the need to mine precious metals ores, you’d be far more motivated to recycle with MobileMuster.

More information on the MobileMuster website.

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