Shields is lead recycler for massive mobile phone scheme

The scheme will operate through Dixons group stores as well as shops operating under the brand names of the phone service providers.

At a glittering launch of the Fonebak scheme in central London today, Environment Minister Michael Meacher praised the businesses involved for taking the initiative before the WEEE Directive becomes law. The WEEE Directive will require the mandatory recovery and recycling of electronically waste equipment, including parts of mobile phones, by the time it becomes transposed into UK law next year. And, after congratulating Gordon Shields, chief executive of Shields Environmental, the minister said that more businesses should seize such opportunities before the government made them compulsory.

The scheme is being heralded as the world's first to have the backing of all the major phone service providers. It has the support of Orange, T-Mobile, Virgin Mobile, Vodafone and O2 as well as Dixons-owned retailers Currys, The Link and PC World.

It is also claimed that the scheme is the first to comply both with current legislation and the forthcoming WEEE Directive. This will require mobile producers and distributors to take responsibility for and provide evidence of taking back and recycling old handsets and accessories in an environmentally efficient way.

Crucially, Fonebak offers financial rewards for the participants. Mr Shields prefers to be known as a “commerical environmentalist” and revenue from the sale of refurbished phones is split between Fonebak and the service providers or retailers.

Sarah Bond, head of marketing at Shields, said: “Shields funds the set up of the schemes and there is no cost to the service providers or the retailers. Environmental matters won't come high on the business agenda until financially it's not a huge cost for them.”

Revenue generated from the sale of refurbished phones in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe help fund the disposal or recycling costs of materials which cannot be re-used as easily. In addition, many of the participating groups are offering customers added incentives to take part, from vouchers to charitable donations.

Each year in Britain, 15 million mobile phones are replaced, generating 1,500 tonnes of potential waste.

Under the scheme, customers can return unwanted phone handsets and accessories directly to O2, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone outlets or collect Freepost envelopes for the return of materials either in person or by phone at Orange, Virgin Mobile, Currys, Dixons, The Link and PC World stores.

Fonebak has been trialling the scheme for the past year. In its first 12 months to August 2002, over one million phones were re-used and over 105 tonnes of handsets, batteries and accessories have been recycled, Shields said.