A recent survey commissioned by ABI Research in the US, revealed that consumers are willing to help the environment by recycling their old mobile phones. But most of the consumers need a reward to actually do it.
According to ABI Research, 38% of consumers claim to have recycled outdated mobile phones. 70% of those respondents donated their old handsets to charity organisations and received charitable contribution tax deductions. 98% of the respondents, who had never recycled a handset, would only be interested in recycling in return for some form of compensation. Only 5% of the respondents recycled their used handsets without any form extra incentive.
Michael Morgan an analyst at ABI Research said: “Many consumers in the US are prepared to help the environment by recycling their old handsets, but only if there is a financial incentive to do so. Virtue is not seen as its own reward in this case.”
Mr. Morgan further added: “Operators wishing to present a ‘green’ public face – and the survey’s results also show that consumers increasingly favor those that do – should factor these attitudes into their recycling schemes.”
According to Saara Tahvanainen, Communications Manager for Sustainability at Nokia, “We have noticed that [offering a reward] increases the chance of people bringing back their mobile". Thus, Nokia has offered customers service vouchers, cash back offers and the promise to plant a tree for every mobile phone returned for recycling.
Hitwise, conducted a survey in the UK, to identify the attitude of consumers towards mobile phone recycling. The findings of the research revealed that there is a massive 189% increase in the number of internet searches related to mobile phone recycling. It has been analysed that the increase in awareness and interest for recycling used handsets is due to the various recycling schemes which offer a cash reward.
