By Idris Saidu
365Daily – Vodafone Germany has announced that it would recycle more than a million old mobile phones from Nigeria, Ghana and Cameroon.
It made this known on Tuesday, June 21, 2022.
Head of the private customer division at Vodafone Germany, Andreas Laukenmann, said the project is a good start for setting new standards for a circular economy.
He added that the Dutch firm’s Closing the Loop would help in the endeavour to gather old phones primarily from Nigeria, Ghana and Cameroon and transport them to Europe for recycling.
Laukenmann further stated that “recycling isn’t enough. The life span must also be made longer.”
The firm added that the campaign would be financed by the raw materials obtained in the process, adding that it would share profits with partners on the ground including churches, community centres or repair shops.
Founder of Closing the Loop, Joost de Kluijver, speaking on the matter, said the countries in question have no capacity for safe recycling, hence the decision to take the waste to Europe by ship.
He added that Vodafone would also support Closing the Loop to build recycling infrastructure in developing countries, which would eliminate the need to ship e-waste and create many more jobs in those countries.
E-waste is the fastest-growing type of household waste worldwide, according to the United Nations Global E-waste Monitor 2020.
In 2019, a record 53.6 million tonnes of e-waste was produced, up 21 per cent in just five years.
In Germany alone, an estimated 200 million unused phones are in drawers, according to the digital industry group Bitkom.