Samsung's New Partnership with T-Mobile, The Closed Loop to Boost E-Waste Recycling

Samsung Netherlands launched a new recycling scheme in collaboration with mobile telecommunication company T-Mobile and the Dutch firm Closing the Loop to boost recycling of old mobile phones.

The scheme is based on one-for-one model. Accordingly, for every purchase of a new Samsung Galaxy S10 E model in Europe, Closing the Loop will collect a used phone for recycling from African countries- Ghana, Cameroon, Uganda and Nigeria. Incidentally, it is the only company in Africa that is actively engaged in scrap phone collection in this manner. The scheme is supported by T-Mobile at its 124 retail outlets across the Netherlands.

According to Joost de Kluijver, CEO, Closing the Loop, the first shipment of 25,000 used phones collected from Cameroon has already reached the Port of Rotterdam. The used phones will be shipped to certified e-scrap recyclers and precious metals recyclers in the region for further processing. The Closed Loop looks forward to major investment in setting up recycling facilities Africa in future, which in turn would enable processing of collected scrap phones locally, thereby avoiding shipments to Europe.

As per estimates only around one-fourth of used cell phones are recycled across the globe. The recycling rate is much lower in certain parts of the world. For instance, Africa recycles only around 1% of the used phones. The mountains of discarded phones pose serious threat to environment and life.