Thursday 31 October 2013

Tips on Recycling Mobile Phones

According to data from the Recycle Now organisation, up to 80% of a mobile phone is recyclable, and now it is easier than ever for people to dispose their old mobiles in a safe way.

One of the options is to take your old mobile to the dealership where you got your new one. All mobile phone shops take in mobiles to be recycled, and some of them even pay a part-exchange fee. Another way is to take the old device to your local household recycling centre, where a variety of household items are recycled. If your old phone is in a good condition and still working well, you can donate it to a charity or a second-hand shop so that someone can still use it. Charities also recycle the phones they can't sell, so it's guaranteed that it will not go to waste and pollute the environment.

There are also online schemes for mobile phone recycling which pay you to give them your old mobile. You just need to find such a website, enter your phone's details, and you will be informed how much money you would receive. If you are fine with the deal, you will get a postage paid envelope in which to send your old phone, and will then receive a cheque with the sum it has been valued at.

A word of warning, however: make sure you remove your SIM card from the phone before you take it to a recycling hub, as well as any personal data and phone numbers.

This article was brought to by FoneHub Limited

Thursday 24 October 2013

Vodafone First to Distribute Samsung Express 2 LTE

Vodafone will be first to sell the new version of the Samsung Galaxy Express, called the Express 2 LTE. The phone will be launched in its stores this week, and will be later made available through other retailers.

The Samsung Express 2 LTE works with the Android 4.2 operational system, and has a 4.5-inch display. It is powered by a 1.7GHz dual core processor, and has an 8 GB on-board memory, which is expandable by another 64 GB via an SD card. The phone also features a 5-megapixel camera.

The Smartphone is equipped with a number of functions such as Smart Stay, which is an advanced facial recognition feature that detects when the phone is being used. It will include Group Play, which lets the owner share music, documents, and photos with other Samsung devices compatible with the feature, along with functions like S Travel, Story Album, and S Translator that target the tourist market in particular. The new model will be offered in Ceramic White at its launch and when it goes to other retailers. Vodafone, however, will continue to be the exclusive dealer of the Rigel Blue color variation.

The vice-president of Samsung's IT and mobile division for the United Kingdom and Ireland, Simon Stanford, said the newest addition to Samsung UK's Galaxy portfolio is aimed at providing users with a smoother and faster Smartphone experience, as well as offering them superior performance.


No information as to the price of the new product has been released.

This article was brought to you by FoneHub Limited 

Thursday 17 October 2013

Mobile Phone Recycling Cuts Use of Conflict Minerals

Did you know that your mobile phone contains a number of conflict minerals, whose mining is used to fund violent conflicts in Africa? This could be one more reason to motivate you to take your old mobile, or any other electronic device, to your nearest recycling point.

Conflict minerals are called this because their mining, which typically involves human rights abuse and child labour, are used to finance bloody conflicts; the biggest instance of which is the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The US Dodd-Frank Act lists among conflict minerals: wolframite (tungsten ore), columbite-tantalite (tantalum ore), gold, and cassiterite (tin ore). These are all used in electronic devices: gold is used to coat the internal wires of the device, tantalum is used in the batteries to ensure they hold their charge after they are disconnected from the socket, and tin is what circuit boards are mostly made of. Tungsten is used for the vibration function of mobile phones.

In the Congo, these are mined illegally by local militia groups, and the proceeds from their black market sale go towards funding the ongoing civil war. The other countries where conflict minerals are mined include South Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Angola, Burundi, Tanzania, Zambia, and the Central African Republic. In all of them, mining of the metals is used to fuel regional conflicts.


Since recycling technology is advanced enough to make a significant portion of electronic device contents reusable, it is one of the ways that we can contribute to reducing the mining of conflict minerals. The US has legislated against the use of conflict minerals in the Dodd-Frank Act, and the UK has put in place guidelines for companies trading in conflict minerals. There is a global move to put a stop to the criminal use of these minerals, and recycling is a significant part of it.

For more information on mobile phone recycling please visit the FoneHub website 

Thursday 10 October 2013

E-waste Recycling Saves Energy

Have you ever considered the benefits of recycling your mobile phone, PC, or tablet? We all know that electronic devices contain a range of valuable materials, including rare earths and precious metals, but did you know that recycling e-waste also saves huge amounts of energy?

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, if the 100 million mobiles that are discarded every year around the world were recycled, the power saved would be enough to satisfy the energy needs of 18,500 households. Unfortunately, only a very small portion of is actually recycled.

With regard to laptops, recycling one million devices would save energy equivalent to almost 3,700 households annually, EPA figures also revealed.

Recycling e-waste also saves energy in its own right, as a process for making secondary raw materials. According to figures of Australian e-waste collector and recycler 1800eWaste, the recovery of steel, for example, takes up 74% less energy than the initial extraction of the metal from ore. The recovery of aluminium takes up 95% less energy, while the recovery of copper takes 85% less. Recycling lead uses 65% less energy than the initial extraction process, and the recycling of plastics uses 80% less power than its initial production.

With all this said, it needs reminding that many recyclable components are considered hazardous as they contain toxic chemicals, such as lead. With 20 to 50 metric tonnes of e-waste dumped into landfills every year, things start to look quite grim. Recycling, however, removes this health hazard from the environment and it does so in an energy-efficient way.

Thursday 3 October 2013

Recycling Phones Prevents Pollution And Makes Use Of Raw Materials

When we purchase a new mobile phone, many of us feel guilty of simply throwing our old one in the bin. However, getting rid of your phone in this way may not be the best option, especially because most devices contain substances which are damaging to the environment. What's more, mobile phones actually contain a lot of valuable materials, including gold and silver, which should not go to waste. The solution for both of these issues is recycling.

Recycling technology for mobile phones is continually improving, and many methods are able to recover up to 80% of the raw materials that went into making the phone. Of the materials recovered, many include rare elements such as gold, copper, nickel, manganese, cobalt (from batteries), and palladium.

Recycling has become very important for the metals industry, given the number of electrical devices that are no longer in use. In Germany alone, there are around 72 million mobile phones stored away and not used, according to estimates by Bitkom, the Federal Association for Information Technology, Telecommunications, and New Media. Perhaps more striking, is the calculation that one million mobile phones contain a total of 24 kg of gold, 250 kg of silver, 9 kg of palladium, and a whopping nine tonnes of copper. It's a pity that a lot of these precious metals go to waste disposal sites, instead of being retrieved and used again.

Apart from everything else, recycling your mobile phone is easy: just take it to a mobile phone shop or to your local network provider, who will take care of it for you.

For more information on mobile phone recycling visit our website FoneHub Limited