Proximus partners with Fairphone for greener smartphones
Every year, consumers throw away millions of mobile phones: most aren’t built to last, and consumers are encouraged to upgrade to the latest model. Only a fraction of these discarded mobile phones is recycled - it’s no wonder that e-waste is the world’s fastest growing waste stream, with 50 million tons of e-waste produced per year. We need to find a better way of doing things, quickly.
Why Proximus works together with Fairphone
It is Proximus' ambition to be a leading company in the fight against global warming and to reduce our impact on the environment. Since 2016, Proximus has been carbon neutral for its own emissions and we also want to further reduce our indirect emissions. We can only achieve this goal by working together with our customers and suppliers.
By partnering with Fairphone and with our own recycling program "Don't Miss the Call" we specifically want to help reducing the fast-growing e-waste stream of old mobile phones. We also fully support the mission of Fairphone to establish a market for greener smartphones and to challenge the whole industry to act more responsibly.
Who is Fairphone?
Fairphone started in 2010 as an awareness campaign about conflict minerals in consumer electronics.
It was later established in Amsterdam as a social enterprise with the ambition to create a ‘fair’ smartphone, looking at increasing its positive impact on social and environmental matters at every stage of the value chain.
Now, Fairphone is a certified B Corporation and was recently awarded the EcoVadis Platinum rating, putting Fairphone at the top 1% of thousands of companies in terms of sustainability performance.
How Fairphone aims for greener electronics
- They create smartphones that last, by offering a modular design to foster easy repair, unique in the industry. This means that replacing a broken screen or a battery can be done in minutes, at a fraction of the costs of non-modular phones.
- They incorporate fairer, recycled, and responsibly mined materials in their smartphones. This is achieved through a step by step approach, and already includes recycled plastics and Fairtrade Gold.
- Putting people first: Fairphone aims at improving job satisfaction and worker representation of factory workers, for example through paying a living wage bonus to factory workers.
- Reducing e-waste. Fairphone is working to move closer to a circular economy by encouraging the reuse and repair of its phones and offering its own recycling program.
Check out the latest Fairphone 4 in our shops
Proximus distributes the smartphones of the Dutch company in its Proximus shops since March 2020.
Check out the Fairphone 4 in one of our Proximus shops now and opt for an ecological and socially responsible device! Fairphone 4 is the first e-waste neutral handset on the market and has everything you expect from a modern smartphone.
Don’t Miss the Call
Buying a new smartphone means that you can give your old one a new life.
Take part in our "Don’t Miss the Call" initiative through your school or company or take the matter into your own hands and bring your old phone(s) to one of our Proximus Shops. You'll receive a voucher of at least 10 euro in exchange.
Use the voucher yourself or donate the amount to our good cause, EIGHT.
