...Latest Survey

Behaviours, attitudes and concerns of UK residents are revealed in the results of Top Dollar Mobile’s survey about being a mobile phone recycler.

Mobile phone recycler, Top Dollar Mobile, announce the results of their most recent online survey, which took place from March 14 to April 18, 2013. A total of 1,229 individuals responded to the survey, where 68.8% of respondents were female and 31.2% were male.

Through this survey, Top Dollar Mobile was able to develop a better understanding of the ownership of mobile phones in the UK population, particularly in regard to behaviours and attitudes toward the disposal, recycling and reuse of unwanted mobile phones. This will make it possible to more effectively encourage increased and improved methods of mobile phone reuse and disposal amongst the British public.

55.9% of the respondents have sold or recycled their mobile phones. The single most popular means of disposal is to sell to mobile phone buyers or recycling companies (35.3%). Comparatively, the younger generation tends to sell their phones to mobile phone buyers or recycling companies while the older generation tends to donate to charities or organizations.

For survey respondents who are mobile phone recyclers, three-quarters of respondents prefer to receive cash or gift cards in exchange for the old phone. The rest choose to donate to charities or organisations, or give to someone in need. 2.8% of respondents will neither sell nor recycle. The results show that the older the respondent, the more willing they are to donate their old phone.

Regarding selling or recycling mobile phones, the main concern of all age groups is the selling or recycling price, followed by ease of selling or recycling process, payment method, payment processing time, trade in service and, of least concern, customer service.

More than 60% of those surveyed possess one or more unused mobile phones and nearly half of the unused mobile phone owners have two or more. The survey indicated that the primary reason for keeping extra phones is to have a back-up in the event that their main phone breaks or is lost. Second and third reasons are low trade-in value and data contained on mobile, respectively.

The most common reason for buying a new mobile phone is to access the latest technology and features. Almost 40% of respondents change their mobile phone every 2 years. A likely cause of this may be that the average mobile phone contract is 24 months, according to Ofcom. Despite this statistic, the Top Dollar Mobile survey found that a majority of those aged 46 or above are more likely to use their phones for three or more years.

The results reflect that virtually half of respondents have used a second-hand mobile phone. A clear generational divide is revealed in that more than half of those up to 35 years of age have used a second-hand mobile phone whilst less than half of those aged over 35 have done so.

The practice of throwing away old phones is highest amongst the 46 to 55 year old age group, while no respondents aged 18 or under have thrown away a mobile phone. While this could be a positive sign, there is a notable tendency in this younger group to keep their old phones; perhaps then, these old phones of the younger generation are simply being held longer before one day going to landfill.

All respondents agreed that discarded mobile phones represent potential hazards to the environment and one’s health. The hazard agreed on most strongly was that “frequent replacement causes rapid accumulation,” followed by “intensifying pollution problems,” “accumulation will cause serious environmental problem,” “would hasten the saturation of landfills,” “eventually huge expenses to handle growing mass of discarded mobile phones,” and “causing health problems.”

Although awareness of the hazards of discarded mobile phones is high amongst UK residents, and most old phones do not go to the landfill, there is still a significant number being thrown away and a considerably larger number that are kept unused, not even as back-ups.

With these results in mind, Top Dollar Mobile is keen to increase awareness of the hazards caused by discarding old mobile phones, and to promote the benefits of individuals being mobile phone recyclers by reusing, recycling, donating or selling them rather than throwing them away or keeping them to gather dust.

Click here to download the complete survey report - http://blog.topdollarmobile.co.uk/

See the infographic here - http://infogr.am/Top%20Dollar%20Mobile

For further information and questions about recycling mobile phones or results of this survey, please contact the Top Dollar Mobile marketing team at webmaster(at)topdollarmobile.co.uk