“We have not made enough progress. We will do some more take back. Collection cans are available at our care centres where we can collect disused phones, batteries and chargers. I think we need to do more in the coming years,” said Nokia’s vice president for West and Central Africa James Rutherford, while speaking at a launch of new products in Lagos, Nigeria.
“We will focus on it and probably put some very good initiatives in place. We will continue and put some new initiatives in place too,” he added.
It is reported that there are more than 50 million cell phones replaced every month worldwide, and only 10 percent of these are recycled.
The remaining 45 million cell phones are either disposed of or left unattended to, thereby increasing greenhouse gas emissions in the world, the same effect that 1,500 cars have to the environment globally.
At the event, Nokia unveiled the Nokia Asha 205 and Nokia 206, both available in single or dual SIM versions. The phones come with Nokia’s exclusive Slam feature that allows users to share multimedia content including music, videos, and photos with friends nearby, without having to necessarily pair the devices via Bluetooth or Internet.
It is reported that the retail price for the Nokia Asha 206 phone, which is expected to be shipped into Nigeria in the next three months, will be around US$62.