Green Tech

Nokia has introduced automated kiosks across the central Klang Valley of Malaysia in a bid to encourage people to recycle their mobile phones.

In a recent study conducted by the mobile-phone maker, only 3 percent of respondents recycled their cell phones, and 50 percent were unaware that their devices could be reused.

Nokia is hoping to improve the statistics with the introduction of kiosks specially designed to ease the recycling process.

An Integrated Nokia Kiosk

(Credit: ZDNet Asia)

"We've been at the forefront of driving environmental initiatives in the mobile industry for over a decade, and Nokia Malaysia is the first to launch this automated recycling machine within Nokia globally," Nellie Abdullah, Nokia Malaysia's environmental coordinator, said in an interview with ZDNet Asia.

The Integrated Nokia Kiosk (INK) is touted to be a first-of-its-kind kiosk that combines recycling and customer care services. As part of a six-month pilot program, the booths have been rolled out in four locations across central Klang Valley. Mobile users can drop off their old phones at the kiosks to be recycled, as well as leave their devices for servicing.

The process has been made easy for customers, who need only to follow the instructions on the touch-screen machine, dropping off their devices or accessories accordingly for recycling or servicing, Nokia executives said.

Customer and phone details are collected at the INK to ensure speedy processing and better security for devices deposited into the kiosk, according to the company. Previously, customers would just drop off their unwanted phones in regular recycling bins at selected Nokia stores and outlets.

The Nokia study also determined that 44 percent of mobile users simply left their old devices unused at homes, while 4 percent of old devices were thrown into landfills. The survey polled some 6,500 people in 13 countries, including China, India, and Germany.

"The new kiosks are part of our commitment to environmental responsibility, and one way in which we believe we can make it easier for people to recycle their used and unwanted mobiles," Nellie said.

"The survey revealed that one of the main reasons why so few people recycle their mobile phones is because they simply don't know that it is possible to do so," she said. "In fact, up to 80 percent of any Nokia device is recyclable. Materials such as cobalt, nickel, copper, iron, aluminum, plastics, and even gold can be recovered. It can be reused to help make new products such as steel and other metal products, plastic cones, and in the case of precious metals like gold, into jewelry."

"If all of the 3 billion people globally (who own) mobiles brought back just one unused device, we could save 240,000 tons of raw materials and reduce greenhouse gases to the same effect as taking 4 million cars off the road," Nellie said. "By working together, small individual actions could add up to make a big difference."

As an added incentive for users to recycle their old mobile devices, Nokia will donate a tree for every phone recycled. This proposal is part of the existing NEWtrees Initiative, a collaboration between Nokia, Equinox Publishing, and WWF Indonesia, in which Nokia pledged to plant 100,000 trees in Sebangau National Park in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. The aim is to help reduce the annual haze that affects the region, and contribute to protecting and preserving Sebangau.

Users who recycle their phones can monitor the growth of their trees, as Nokia will provide the coordinates of the tree planted and instructions on how to view the tree via Google Earth.

Lee Min Keong is a freelance IT writer for ZDNet Asia based in Malaysia.

Street repair services for cell phones are a big industry in India. Technicians there get a diploma from a 'Mobile Repairing Institute.'

(Credit: Jan Chipchase/Nokia)

SAN FRANCISCO--Jan Chipchase is a cell phone modification guru. A researcher at Nokia Design in Tokyo, he's seen cell phones modified to hold up to 16 SIM cards and plenty more in his role at the company.

Chipchase is a member of a team at Finnish cell phone giant Nokia that's trying to lower the cost of phones for emerging markets, an effort that's part market development and part recycling. The group of 15 has scanned bazaars and street shops in places as diverse as Ghana, Brazil, Iran, India, Egypt, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, China, and Mongolia to learn how end users relate to their products--and they discovered surprises that could impact consumer electronics makers within the next 15 years.

Jan Chipchase

(Credit: Nokia)

Their main finding: there's no limit to how cell phones can be modified and how their life spans can be extended.

And breathing new life into phones usually doesn't take a complex set of tools. In most cases, handsets can be reborn with the help of just a screwdriver and a toothbrush sprayed with alcohol to clean the contact heads.

In Accra, the capital of Ghana, the shining device on display might very likely be an old phone that got a tuneup. Have a defunct phone? In China, you can go to a bazaar and purchase any part for the 20 most popular phones. The shelves are also filled with printouts of repair handbooks.

"The point is that you think the thing is a closed box that can't be tinkered with, but you can actually go into a shop and build your own phone," Chipchase told CNET News.com last week. He stopped here to speak at a meeting arranged by research and development firm Adaptive Path.

One of Chipchase's favorite pastimes while traveling is to buy a mobile phone, smash it, and bring it to a cell phone repair shop to see how technicians deal with the mess. He calls this "the repairing experience."

So, you want that phone with 3G?

(Credit: Jan Chipchase/Nokia)

"The informal repair culture...makes mobile phones something more affordable to price-sensitive customers, increasing the lifetime of products while lowering the environmental-impact risks," he said, adding that with new phones appearing constantly, street mechanics very quickly learn how to work with new models.

"If they want to stay in business, they've got to listen to what the customer wants," Chipchase said.

In Tehran, meanwhile, consumers can just bring a phone to a shop where the shelves are filled with the latest software ready for download--pirated just weeks after a new model has hit the world market.

The same software-on-demand thinking goes for India--on the streets of New Delhi customers can buy a video phone that plays cricket clips and Bollywood films. And if you're in the market for a job there, you can get a diploma from a "Mobile Repairing Institute."

Installing alternative languages, switching frequency bands, unlocking software installations--these are part of everyday life in many of the places Chipcase and his team visited. In Cairo, Egypt, grocery store owners ask if you want to buy ringtones as you shop for food.

Looking for new ways to recycle
Meanwhile, with Earth Day approaching April 22, the recycling of electronics such as cell phones may assume a more prominent spot in people's minds.

In some parts of the world, the notion of not recycling electronics might seem absurd. People save their wages for months to be able to buy a cell phone, a precious little tool for small businesses or keeping in contact with family and friends where the Internet or even a landline just isn't accessible.

But in the U.S., there are more than half a billion retired phones, and less than 1 percent of those get recycled, according to information from the U.S. Geological Survey and nonprofit Earthworks.

Nokia, which dominates the world market for cell phones in almost every part of the planet except for the U.S., thinks there's much to be done on that front.

One example of what might be a new approach is the Nokia prototype cell phone Remade, which the company showed off at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, in February. Remade's cover, rather than coming from petroleum-based plastic, is made of recycled aluminum cans and old rubber tires, and the device inside comes from a used cell phone.

Cell phone software on demand in Delhi, India.

(Credit: Jan Chipchase/Nokia)

"This is a concept, to take waste and turn it into something useful," Chipchase said. Although the thin, silver Remade doesn't yet make phone calls and may never reach the market, it can be seen as a commitment to change--and a step toward a possible eco-trend.

During its travels, the Nokia design team discovered a whole business ecosystem around the mobile phone.

And no wonder, as half of the world's population owns a wireless device, according to a report by Informa Telecoms and Media. By the end of last year there were 3.3 billion subscribers. India's subscriber base will pass the U.S. this month, according to Cellular-News.

"In terms of scale, no electronic object has gone so far," Chipchase said.

Asked how Nokia's management has reacted to his team's findings, Chipchase said the data inspires a sense of potential. "People who don't work in these countries are surprised," he said. But "they see it as a possibility, more than a threat."

Many times, all that's needed to repair a cell phone is a good screwdriver and a toothbrush sprayed with alcohol to clean the contact heads.

(Credit: Jan Chipchase/Nokia)

Although it's on the fringe of Europe geographically, Finland has for years been at the center of the continent's tech industry.

The country gave birth to cell phone leader Nokia and has emerged as a place where multinationals like to recruit and erect labs. The government and local entrepreneurs are now moving into clean technology.

It can be traced back to policies set up in the early 1980s, said Matti Vanhanen, the country's prime minister, during an interview with CNET News.com on Wednesday afternoon. The country saw the dawning of globalization and realized it would have to dig out a high-end niche in the industry.

Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen

(Credit: Courtesy of the E.U.)

"Because we cannot compete with Asian companies with low wages, our only possibility has been to stay a few steps forward," he said. "Of course, we also invested in education."

Funding for research and development has also consistently remained fairly high, he added.

"As a nation, around 3.5 percent of our gross domestic product goes into R&D. There are only two or three nations that spend that much," he said. The E.U. as a whole wants to raise the figure for member states to 3 percent.

"But we (the E.U.) are far away from that. Most members are at 2 percent, but Sweden and Finland are already there," Vanhanen added.

Roughly two-thirds of the R&D funds in Finland come from the private sector, but one-third comes from the government. "There is a good relationship between private and public funding, but it is not the state's role not to determine where the money should go. It has to be very market oriented," he said.

Vanhanen is traveling around the U.S. this week to promote Finland as a technology hub as well as highlight the issue of climate change. Earlier in the week he met with Vice President Dick Cheney and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Today, he's in Seattle with Bill Gates. Next, it's off to France to visit Nicolas Sarkozy. (The finance minister, meanwhile, was dispatched to China.)

Last year, the government set up an organization in Silicon Valley called FinNode to encourage cross-border cooperation. (It functions in a similar way to Japan's Jetro.)

An outspoken critic of nuclear power and proponent of energy conservation, Vanhanen outlined his views on climate change. In short, governments need to start acting.

"I'm a little pessimistic about what we can achieve in the short term, but the answer can't be that we can't do anything," he said. "If we don't do anything, it will be a disaster."

The next major milestone for the world lay in coming up with new emissions standards to follow the Kyoto Protocol. A summit to hammer out these issues will take place in Copenhagen toward the end of 2009.

Because of its northern location, Finland actually consumes more energy, per capita, than most other nations. As part of an effort to curb emissions, a law was passed a few months ago imposing carbon taxes on cars. Cars that get better mileage pay far lower taxes than high emission, lower mileage cars. The range of taxes goes from 10 percent of the car's value to 40 percent.

"Small cars now cost about $10,000 less than last year, and big passenger cars that pollute a lot can cost $50,000 more than last year," he said. "We will see in the next months what kind of changes in consumer behavior this causes."

Despite the pessimism of getting anything done in the short term, Vanhanen added that he's somewhat optimistic when it comes to technological breakthroughs.

"Twenty years ago, you couldn't imagine what we have now with information technology," he said.