July 2011 ~ Durian-Tech

Nokia held an events in Mid Valley today about "Nokia Recyclimpics", I was invited by them but I missed it. Was kind a disappointed because of the short time I got today. :s

Here is what you need to know about Nokia Recyclimpics if you don't know:

Nokia Recyclimpics Brings
Fun and Entertainment to Recycling

Malaysia, July 1, 2011 – Nokia continues its green efforts of ‘Recycle a Phone & Adopt a Tree’ in Malaysia to support environment-friendly lifestyles and also provide an easily accessible solution for responsible recycling at the three-day Nokia Recyclimpics event at Mid Valley, East Court.

Nokia Recyclimpics, modeled after popular sports activities, encourages Malaysians to bring their old, redundant or even broken mobiles that are no longer of use and use the devices as the sports equipment whether in the form of a basketball, javelin, or bowling ball. The campaign, with a series of fun and interactive activities, hopes to present recycling as a fun movement and educate Malaysians on the benefits of conserving the environment.

For every user who recycles their old mobile devices, accessories, chargers and mobile batteries of any brands – Nokia will donate a tree as part of Nokia NewTrees Program. Users who recycle their phones can monitor the growth of their trees as Nokia will provide the coordinates of the tree planted and instructions on how to view the tree via Nokia Maps.

Commenting on the campaign kick-off, Vlasta Berka, General Manager, Nokia Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei said, “We are thrilled to present a fun and interactive opportunity for Malaysians to contribute to the green movement through sharing our knowledge on what mobile phone recycling means and how easy it is to recycle. We want to help overcome some of the barriers to recycling phones and make recycling a fun faction, not a chore at the Nokia Recyclimpics.”

Nokia, a knowledgeable player in mobile phone recycling , rolled out its concerted recycling efforts in year 2000 across Southeast Asia Pacific. Since then, Nokia has been promoting recycling of mobile phones, batteries and its accessories to consumers and the general public through its Public Take Back programs. Today, Nokia has more than 200 Nokia Care Centres with recycling bins in Australia, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

The Nokia NewTrees Program is part of Nokia’s collaboration with WWF Indonesia having sponsored the planting of 126,000 trees in Sebangau National Park in Central Kalimantan, Rinjani Protected Forest Lombok and Ciliwung Das, Jakarta in Indonesia. Its aim is to help reduce the annual haze that affects the region and contribute in a small way to protecting and preserving Sebangau as an invaluable national asset in the region. “We hope that our on-going efforts will continue to protect valuable assets so that our younger generation can appreciate its beauty too,” explained Berka.

Talking about Nokia’s contribution to environment in Malaysia, Francis Cheong, Nokia Senior Sustainability Manager for SEAP commented, “Nokia has a comprehensive sustainability and environmental strategy and recycling is one of the key aspects covered. We understand that leadership means responsibility, that’s why at Nokia, we consider the environment in everything we do and even go beyond our own operations and products: we want to give that chance to our consumers too because we understand that a power of a billion people can do a lot of good to our environment.”

According to Nokia’s global consumer survey on recycling, only 3% of people said they had recycled their old phone – whereas 44% of old mobile phones are lying at home for no use and not being recycled. The survey revealed that one of the main reasons why so few people recycle their mobile phones is because they simply don’t know that it is possible to do so. Mobile devices and accessories contain raw materials which – if recycled in a responsible high standard process – can be reused in many ways to make new things, such as musical instruments or even dental fillings. 100 percent of the materials in Nokia devices can be recovered and used to make new products or generate energy.

Francis added, “If the 4.6 billion people using mobile phones recycled just one unused phone at the end of its life, together we will save nearly 370,000 tons of raw materials and reduce greenhouse gases to the same effect as taking 6 million cars off the road.”

Nokia has more than 5,000 recycling points globally in almost 100 countries. In Malaysia, Nokia initiated an awareness drive to help people understand recycling and its benefits, and in addition the company facilitates that all collected devices, chargers, accessories and batteries are recycled in a responsible way according to high environmental standards. Nokia’s Mobile Phone Take Back and Recycling Program was rolled out in Malaysia in 2008.

Berka added, “The power of WE can create formidable results. By working together, small individual actions can add up to make a big difference and we have made recycling old mobile phones very simple for people. All they need to do is drop in the old mobile phone, charger, battery or accessories of any brand at one of our Nokia collection points and we’ll take care of the rest.”

Nokia does neither resell the phones nor carry out refurbishment business as there is no control over the quality or safety of the phones after restoration. Instead, Nokia works with carefully selected, approved recyclers who reclaim materials according to highest environmental and international standards.

Complementing its green initiative, Nokia has also introduced a number of green apps on its Ovi Store that help people contribute to a better environment through fun activities. A complete list of environment friendly apps is available on www.ovi.com/dogood website.

More information about Nokia’s Recycling program is available on www.nokia.com/werecycle

The events was to show the 'green' part of recycling your old mobile phones and accessories, in order to sustain a better environment and also to spread the awareness of global warming. So, did you participate the events when you're in Mid Valley? :D

Here is some picture parts of it