Move to Support Environmentally Friendly Mobile Phone Disposal

Mr. Philippe Roch, President of COP-5 of the Basel Convention, has launched an initiative to set up a pilot project on partnership with industry on the environmentally sound management of end-of-life mobile phones.

This initiative is a result of numerous discussions on the possibility of entering into sustainable partnership with industry to advance the objectives of the Basel Convention and the Basel Declaration on environmentally sound management. This initiative could lead to other projects involving the environmentally sound management of end-of-life products which become wastes.

Because the number of manufacturers is manageable, as a first step in this initiative the President invited major mobile phone manufacturers to meet for consultation in order to define the scope of co-operation in the initiative. Later, other appropriate stakeholders such as network providers who are more numerous would be invited into the dialogue. The overall goal of the initiative is to establish a partnership with mobile phone manufacturers, network providers and other life cycle stakeholders on the environmentally sound management of end-of-life mobile phones.

There were two meetings that took place in Geneva, first one on 23 September 2002 (chaired by Mr. Philippe Roch with support of the SBC) and the second one on 31 October 2002 (chaired by Mr. Marco Buletti 1 with support of the SBC). In addition a telephone conference was held on 18 October 2002 (chaired by Mr. Marco Buletti).

The following 8 manufacturing companies attended the meetings and telephone conference: Alcatel (23.9.02), LG, Matsushita (Panasonic), Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, Siemens, SonyEricsson. Philips could not participate in the meetings, but actively contributed to the discussions through written and verbal comments on draft documents. UNEP Division of Technology, Industry and Environment (Paris) and, with observer status, the GSM-Association (31.10.02) also attended the face-to-face meetings.

The Sustainable Partnership on the Environmentally-Sound Management of End-of-Life Mobile Phones was signed on the sidelines of week-long talks on the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal."

Posted to the site on 13th December 2002