Today, 80 % of the environmental impact of mobile devices is attributed to the manufacturing phase, but also when they reach their end of life. Why? Because when electric and electronic equipment becomes defunct, many components become waste (WEEE).
For this reason, Orange is committed to supporting several collection and recycling efforts in Africa.
Orange works with several very effective local partners in the field. The notion of second life is an integral part of the African lifestyle: a telephone is repaired as often as possible. However, in Africa and the Middle East, local repair shops rarely have an organized recycling center.
In this context, we support the second life approach by encouraging mobile phone repair shops and dealers to send their electronic waste to official collection and recycling channels.
Collecting end-of-life devices that contain precious raw materials is definitely everyone’s responsibility. It can only develop at scale if everyone plays their part.
The process
- People bring their old phones to the repair shop. What cannot be repaired is kept on site.
- Collection agents go to the repair shop to weigh, record, purchase and collect the waste.
- The waste is then taken to local workshops sponsored by Orange in partnership with the non-profit Emmaüs international, where it is reweighed, sorted and registered.
- The waste is packaged up by category and stored for shipment to France in containers.
- As soon as the waste arrives in France, waste management company Morphosis purchases and recycles it. Objective: extract the metal contained in the electronic components so they can be used to create new equipment and appliances.
Sustainable management is crucial to FreeMove Alliance members and partners. Each of our operators taking action in order to create a greener future. To learn more about our joint efforts, get our latest whitepaper based on an in-depth analysis of 25 countries on:
- Renewable Energy and Carbon Emissions
- Device Recycling and Handset Management
- Sustainable Supply Chain
- Taking sustainability to the next level with 5G
