Hawkesbury City Council > Environment > Waste & Recycling > Recycling in the Hawkesbury > Free recycling of old or unused Mobile Phones

Free recycling of old or unused Mobile Phones

Mobile Muster Banner

Mobile phones contain small amounts of potentially hazardous substances which if not disposed of correctly, can harm the environment.

MobileMuster is the official recycling program of the mobile phone industry in Australia which was initiated voluntarily by the telecommunications industry in 1999. Its overall aim is to prevent mobile phones ending up in landfill.

The program collects and recycles mobile phone handsets, batteries, and accessories from a network of over 3,500 public drop off points including mobile phone retailers, local councils, government agencies, educational institutes and businesses across Australia.

Where to recycle – Your closest collection points for free drop off in the Hawkesbury are:

  • Hawkesbury City Council – 366 George Street, Windsor
  • Hawkesbury Library Service – Deerubbin Centre, 300 George Street, Windsor
  • Hawkesbury Library Service – 29 West Market Street, Richmond
  • Hawkesbury City Waste Management Facility – The Driftway, South Windsor
  • Most Australia Post outlets (where you can also pick up a recycling satchel for free postage)

Over 90% of mobile phone components can be recycled; this includes handsets, batteries and accessories.

MobileMuster is a not for profit program. All phones are recycled to the highest environmental standards, none are refurbished and sold. The program is managed by the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association on behalf of its members. The program is funded by a levy paid by the majority of handset manufacturers and all network service providers on each handset they ship into Australia.

Mobile Facts:

  • In 2009/2010 MobileMuster collected 103 tonnes of mobile phone components including 846,000 handsets and batteries,
  • 724 tonnes of handsets, batteries, chargers and accessories have been collected since the recycling program was initiated by AMTA in 1999 as of June 2010. This includes 5.11 million batteries and handsets,
  • Over the four years of Old phones, more trees –100,000kg of mobile and accessories have been recycled and 225,000 trees have been planted to restore native vegetation, protect endangered species and help restore sustainability of two of the regions food growing areas – The Murray River and Western Australia’s central-eastern wheat belt,
  • MobileMuster is a whole of industry not for profit program that is funded by handset and accessory manufacturers Nokia, Motorola, Samsung Electronics, HTC, LG Electronics, Sony Ericsson, Sharp, I-Mate, Force Technology and network carrier Telstra, Optus, Vodafone, 3 Mobile, Virgin Mobile and AAPT.

 

Page ID 38078

© Hawkesbury City Council 2009