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300,000 Old Mobile Phones to be Recycled

ABU DHABI - About 100 tonnes of electronic waste including over 300,000 out of use mobile phones will be collected for recycling in 2009 as part of the EnviroFone – the UAE’s national level mobile phone and e-waste recycling campaign.

Stuart Fleming, Managing Director of EnviroFone told Khaleej Times here that the e-waste to be collected during the campaign would also include items like lap-tops, computers, monitors, electronic printers and key boards, besides the mobile phones.

Etisalat has decided to become exclusive sponsor of the campaign and to donate a total of Dh 5 million for it as part of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives. Stuart Fleming clarified that this was the second phase of the campaign and nearly 52 tonnes of e-waste including about 200,000 mobile phones were collected in its first phase launched in 2007.

Collection boxes for e-waste will be installed in about 500 locations across the UAE in this phase of the campaign to be launched within a couple of weeks.

These boxes will be placed in the premises of Etisalat centres, ADNOC and E-NOC petrol pumps as well as the super market chains like Spinneys and Lulu. Those depositing their old phones in the boxes will be given some prizes also based on a raffle draw, Stuart Fleming said.

Replying to questions he said the collected waste would be separated as plastic, metal and glass as well as the motherboards. The plastic, metal and glass waste components will be recycled in the UAE, while the motherboards will be sent to Germany for recycling.

The Vice-President, Corporate Communications of Etisalat, Ahmed bin Ali said, Etisalat through its subsidiary UT Technology, is now working to introduce green building regulations, setting the criteria for developers who are at the design or construction phase of their projects.

The CEO of UT Technology Engineer Saleem Al Marzouqi, said Etisalat was deploying NGN fibre to every home in the UAE. This will enable us to offer greater access to broadband services and to provide additional services to our customers including (video conferencing, TV broadcast and VOIP).”

“Replacing old networks will reduce their negative impact and space needed for infrastructure. We are also going to support the construction of ‘smart buildings’ that can save around 30 per cent of electricity and 50 per cent in terms of space requirements for technical infrastructure. Energy will be provided to these buildings through a central commands centre which will be responsible for monitoring electricity, water and gas usage,” Saleem Al Marzouqi said.

“Today we are using ‘smart buildings’ technology in Abu Dhabi, starting from The Reem Island, the first ‘Smart City’ in the UAE. It will have over 300 buildings constructed between now and 2020. The central commands centre in this ‘Smart City’ will allow its residents to monitor their houses their levels of consumption of electricity, water and gas on an individual basis. This will help our customers to reduce their energy consumption and make a green choice,” Al Marzouqi said.

· ramavarman@khaleejtimes.ae