Nokia India launched its first ‘Take-Back’ awareness campaign from January 1, 2009 in Ludhiana, Delhi, Gurgaon and Bangalore. The campaign aimed at educating mobile phone users about the importance of recycling e-waste. As part of this campaign we encouraged mobile phone users to dispose their used handsets, regardless of the brand, at any of the recycling bins set up at our Nokia Priority Dealers, Nokia Care Centers or Nokia Concept Stores. An overwhelming response to this campaign resulted in a collection of over 3 tons of e-waste in just 45 days in the selected 4 cities. As a good will gesture, for every handset dropped in the recycle bin we had promised to plant a tree, and to help us in this noble cause an NGO in Kancheepuram district of Tamil Nadu has joined hands with us for the plantation of over 10,000 trees in 4 villages.

This campaign will soon be extended to other parts of the country in a phased manner. To support this expansion we have laid out a robust recycling infrastructure across the country with over 1300 recycling bins installed at our various Nokia Priority Dealers, Nokia Care Centers and Nokia Concept Stores.

The recycled material can be used to make useful items like park benches, utensils, public utility facilities, etc. Rest assured we work with qualified recyclers around the world to ensure proper end-of life treatment of used devices. Recycling means we don’t need to extract and refine as much material for new pr oducts, saving energy, chemicals and waste.

If every Nokia user recycled just one unused phone at the end of its life, together we would save nearly 80,000 tonnes of raw materials. So, make a resolution today – drop an old phone and contribute to the environment.