The German mobile operator says more than 80 tonnes of e-waste have been collected by the scheme.
Vodafone first launched its “One for One” initiative in June 2022, promising customers in Germany that for every new mobile phone it sold, the company would bring an old device into the recycling ecosystem.
Since then, Vodafone has worked with social enterprise Closing the Loop to collect more than 1.5 million devices. From these devices, it says more than 6,300 kg of copper, 37 kg of silver and 7 kg of gold will be returned to the recycling system. Vodafone says they can then be processed further, and be reused by the tech industry, or broken down and taken into jewellery production.
Vodafone says the devices are collected in Ghana before being shipped to Europe for safe recycling. The company acknowledges that it would be better to conduct local recycling and says Closing the Loop is currently working on plans to build an African recycling facility in the near future.
