ARN

Aussies worry about recycling phones

Australians aren't recycling old mobile phones because they're worried about protecting their data.

A majority of Australians are putting off recycling their mobile phones because they're concerned about protecting their personal data.

Research has revealed that 65 per cent of Australians are worried their details would still be accessible to a future user if a mobile phone was recycled.

Data obtained from mobile phone recycling program MobileMuster also showed that 76 per cent of Australians would feel more confident recycling their old mobiles if they knew how to deleteor save the data stored on them.

The manager of MobileMuster recycling, Rose Read, says people should be assured that all mobile phones are completely destroyed during the recycling process.

"Every mobile phone and accessory is dismantled here in Australia prior to being processed for material recovery," Ms Read said.

"None are refurbished or resold."

There are 19 million old and broken mobile phones that are not yet recycled, despite the fact 90 per cent of a mobile phone is recyclable.

To mark National Recycling Week, MobileMuster surveyed 218 respondents over the age of 18 about their mobile phone attitudes.

Nominations for the 2012 ARN IT Industry Awards open on Tuesday, June 12.

More about: mobiles, Rose

Comments

1

Rob Beaumont

Thu 10/11/2011 - 10:17

I don't believe for one moment that the Rose or her colleagues receive an iPhone for instance and destroy it, not for one moment, were all human and just like in the clothes or whatever recycling, someone picks the best for keeps, not many are immune.

If I want to recycle any of my phones I would bash the living daylights out of the phone, to obliteration and then hand it in, call me cynical but invasion of privacy is at an all time high, I'm not going to add to it.

Rob

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