The company announced this week that since being launched in March 2006, its mobile trading website, envirofone.com, has received over 30 million hits and paid out over 400,000 for old phones. The company has been operating since 2003 working with schools, charities and others promoting phone recycling with payments for mobiles.
The website – which Eazyfone claims is the first phone site in the UK to offer cash and make donations to charity – has helped reuse and recycle hundreds of different models online.
Grades
Envirofone.com sends customers who register online freepost envelopes to post their phones and then grades them on their model and condition. Customers are then awarded “enviropoints” that can be converted into cash or up to 100 of credit with retailer Argos, and 1 is donated to charity Barnardos.
The company claimed that 100 million old mobile phones are thrown away in Europe, which could be easily recycled. Under the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment directive, scheduled to come into force in the UK in 2007, recycling will become compulsory.
On its website, Envirofone.com promises: “Every element of the phones and batteries is recycled. This enables such elements to be reused in industry.”
The company explained that cadmium, lithium and nickel can be extracted from batteries by Gloucestershire-based company Engelhard, whereas platinum, gold, silver and copper are retrieved from handsets.
Other phones are reused abroad. The website said: “Phones are repackaged and refurbished. Resale and reuse takes place in growing economies around the world, where our mobile communications products are highly sought after.”
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