Greetings,
I've discovered another moment of genius from the people at Airmiles, they are now rolling out a
mobile phone recycling scheme which allows consumers to receive airmiles in return for unwanted mobile phones, not only that but they have the gall to suggest that this scheme is 'environmentally friendly' because your phone is recycled or reused in line with the WEEE directive! This completely green washes over the fact that you will be collecting credits towards air travel through the scheme, completely undermining the benefits gained by recycling the phone in the first place.
Working from
these figures, the average phone requires emission of 60kg of CO2 to be manufactured. Sending your phone to be recycled means that you offset a total of 35 miles of air travel (
assuming you are travelling long haul) after which you will be contributing a minimum of 0.17Kg CO2 per mile. As most long haul flights are a minimum of 6.5 hours in duration, you could be travelling as far as 550 miles, thus contributing an additional 85Kg of CO2 to the atmosphere.
It always pays dividends to look at the detail in more depth and think about the true environmental benefit of such schemes; in this case there are plenty of businesses out there which recycle mobile phones without trying to bribe you with air travel.
Onwards & upwards!
Lucy.
