CUSTOMER WASTE

In 2009, the company will enable all Group companies to use a service that picks up discarded mobile telephony handsets and accessories for recycling and re-utilisation of resources and raw materials.

In keeping with our commitment to the environment, most Group companies provide customers with drop-off points where they can leave their old handsets for recycling. This service will be offered throughout 2009 at all Telefónica businesses.


In 2008 we recycled about 1,600 tonnes of waste electrical and electronic equipment from customers, making for a 38% increase on the total quantity recycled the previous year.

Specific examples of efforts made in individual Telefónica Group countries to recycle customer and third-party waste are shown in our CSR Atlas.

Telefónica Spain, for instance, supported Punto Radio's Protagonistas en Verde environmental tour by offering participants recycle bins provided by the Tragamóvil Foundation, a charity set up by ASIMELEC, the Spanish electronics and communications business federation. Users could drop off their unwanted handsets, which were then recycled at special treatment plants that recover the material for re-use, thus saving resources.

Telefónica Germany, for its part, ran a campaign aimed primarily at employees but also open to family members and third parties wishing to recycle their old mobile phones. The campaign helped care for the environment and, in addition, lent support to a major international charity, the World Wide Fund for Nature, in its bid to reforest the banks of the Elbe and foster the recovery of endangered species (the Mittlere Elbe project).