Nokia, Motorola to collect old handsets
(Asia Pusle)
Updated: 2005-12-28 13:59

Motorola, Nokia and China's leading telecom operator, China Mobile, have launched a campaign to collect abandoned mobile phones, which have increased rapidly as subscribers skyrocket to 388 million.

The "Green Box Environment Protection Plan," or the allied move to recycle abandoned mobile phones and accessories, started from mid December, according to sources from Motorola Tuesday.

Some 1,000 China Mobile outlets and 150 sales centers of each mobile phone giant will set up long-term "green boxes" to collect abandoned mobile phones, which will be processed and recycled by the three parties in an environment-friendly manner.

Motorola said it has collected three tons of abandoned mobile phones and accessories since it entered the Chinese market.

China is the largest mobile phone market in the world.

By the end of November, there were 29.1 mobile phones for every 100 Chinese, according to the Ministry of Information Industry.