GOVERNMENT
State departments and local councils are champion recyclers of mobile phones.
![Spyro Kalos says a continuing challenge is encouraging individuals to part with the more than 25 million disused ...](/web/20170130132742im_/http://www.canberratimes.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/q/a/l/0/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gsqagv.png/1479645264997.jpg)
Spyro Kalos, the manager of recycling at the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association (AMTA), says public and private sector workplaces are continuing to increase their annual collections and in the year ended June 30, they diverted over 5122 kilograms of mobiles, batteries, chargers and accessories from landfill via the Mobile Muster program.
Top contributors included the federal Department of Defence, NSW' Department of Community and Family Services and the City of Sydney, and in Victoria, the Country Fire Authority and the Moonee Valley City Council.
Established in 1994, AMTA is the peak industry body representing Australia's mobile telecommunications industry and its members include mobile carriers, handset manufacturers, shops, and network equipment and other suppliers.
Over the past decade, Mobile Muster has collected over 90 tonnes of mobiles and accessories for recycling.
The program uses industry-funded award and awareness programs to encourage recycling by schools, councils and workplaces. Its reply-paid postage satchels are available from Australia Post offices, JB Hi-Fi stores, and councils, while some educational institutions offer drop-off facilities.
Kalos says a continuing challenge is encouraging individuals to part with the more than 25 million disused mobiles estimated to be sitting in drawers and cupboards. He grew up in Sydney, where he trained as a teacher and taught high school for a short time before moving to the Gold Coast, where he trained for triathlons and worked in retail for a few years.
"I was quite young — around 17 — when I finished high school and went to university, so when I was doing pracs I was 18 or 19 teaching kids who were 16 or 17 and calling me sir. That took a bit of adjusting to and after university I felt like a bit of a break," he says. When he returned to Sydney, he found a job in an Optus call centre when the mobile phone industry was taking off.
"It was a great working environment with a lot of opportunities for promotion and growth — you felt you could move anywhere in the industry," Kalos says. He stayed with Optus for about six years before joining Vodafone where he stayed for nine years, working his way from a technical help desk position to senior sales and operational management roles in what had become a very competitive industry.
He says AMTA has a broad role, representing the telecommunications industry to government; working with policy makers, regulators and the community; liaising with local government on the positioning of towers and other equipment; and encouraging organisations and individuals to recycle old phones that are no longer in use. With e-waste the fastest-growing waste stream in the world, Kalos says Mobile Muster is playing an important part in ensuring that reusable components of devices are recycled.
"We collect about a million handsets and batteries a year. About 99 per cent of the material can be recovered and put back into the supply chain," he says. The collected waste is sent to multinational recycler TESS-AMM and processed in a way that ensures data destruction and maximises recovery of resources.
Kalos says people are often reluctant to part with old phones because of concerns about data security.
"We have tools on our website that show people how to protect their data, but if for some reason the phone can't be switched on, all data is destroyed through the recycling process. This is important to a lot of organisations. Nothing is tested before it is dismantled."