Two recent reports by the mobile phone industry and a survey conducted by the Total Environment Centre revealed the 'Mobile Muster' scheme as seriously flawed. The industry has achieved a paltry 3% recovery rate and, in the meantime, a mountain of toxic mobiles is waiting to be dumped, Total Environment Centre said."After seven years in the game, all the industry can claim is a pathetic 3% recycling rate, despite collecting a levy on every new phone sold. Mobile Muster is all spin and no substance,” said Jeff Angel, director of the Total Environment Centre."The Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association (AMTA) in two reports to the NSW Government showed only a few percent of the mobiles sold have been recycled. AMTA likes to selectively play with figures but they can't hide their hopeless program.”"They also claim that most people don't dump their phones, preferring to keep them. But this is a temporary situation. Once the phone is technologically redundant, neither the original owner, nor the person they may have passed the phone onto, is going to keep it."Voluntary measures alone are proving insufficient. The toxic time bomb is ticking,” said Mr Angel."It's time environment ministers imposed a regulated Extended Producer Responsibility scheme with clear targets, and make industry responsible and accountable for the waste it creates. A refundable deposit or a pre-paid return envelope with the phones would be a great incentive to get those phones out of cupboards and bins and recycled,” said Mr. Angel.
Mobile recycling fails Electronics News
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