Orange organizes the recycling of used mobile phones from Africa with support from Emmaüs International

* Orange announces the arrival in France of the first container loaded with 8 tons of used mobile phones from Burkina Faso, as part of its partnership with Emmaüs International.
* In line with its commitment to recycle mobile handsets, initiated in 2005, Orange is encouraging the creation of workshops in Africa to collect used mobile phones and prepare them for recycling
* This initiative is part of the partnership with the Ateliers du Bocage, members of Emmaüs International, which also recycles the mobiles collected by Orange in France.

8 tons of used mobiles leave Africa for recycling in France
A first container loaded with 8 tons of used mobile phones has arrived in France by boat from Burkina Faso. These mobiles were routed to the Ateliers du Bocage, the starting point for their recycling. Other containers will follow in the coming months.

As a socially responsible company, Orange wants to manage the end of the lifecycle for African mobiles. With no organized mobile recycling available on the continent, Orange is offering a recycling solution in France in partnership with the Ateliers du Bocage at Le Pin in the Deux-Sèvres department.

To manage the mobile lifecycle from end to end and prevent mobiles from ending up in open air dumps in Africa, Orange joined forces with Emmaüs International to open workshops for used mobile phone collection and reconditioning in Africa. The objective is to collect mobiles at the end of their lifecycle for recycling in Europe, where the reconditioning plants are located.
As of the end of May 2011, nearly 17.5 tons of this waste had been collected in Burkina Faso – the equivalent of 118,000 mobiles – since the project was kicked off, and 2.2 tons in Benin.

“Orange is pleased to be able to offer an innovative, responsible, end-to-end recycling system today, illustrating our mobilization for and solidarity with social economics,” says Delphine Ernotte, Executive Director of Orange France.

Following Burkina Faso and Benin in February 2011, Orange opened a third workshop in Madagascar on July 4, 2011, and it plans to open a fourth in Niger in late 2011. The project aims to cover a dozen countries within the next two to three years.

Partnership between Orange and Ateliers du Bocage, members of Emmaüs International
Orange has been working since 2009 with Ateliers du Bocage, which processes all of the used mobiles collected in Orange boutiques in France and internally. Ateliers du Bocage facilitates the social integration of persons in difficulty by helping them re-join the working world.


In 2010, Orange’s actions in favour of recycling – collecting mobiles in Orange boutiques and offices, from major business customers of Orange, from returns of defective mobiles and through the “mobile second life” offer – have collected more than 300,000 mobile phones in France.

See all the videos related to this press release at:
http://www.recycler-mobile.orange.fr/recycler-equipements-page2.html


About Orange
France Telecom-Orange is one of the world’s leading telecommunications operators with 170,000 employees worldwide, including 102,000 employees in France, and sales of 11.2 billion euros in the first quarter 2011. Present in 35 countries, the Group had a customer base of 215.9 million customers at 31 March 2011, including 141.6 million customers under the Orange brand, the Group’s single brand for internet, television and mobile services in the majority of countries where the company operates. At 31 March 2011, the Group had 156.7 million mobile customers and 13.9 million broadband internet (ADSL, fibre) customers worldwide. Orange is one of the main European operators for mobile and broadband internet services and, under the brand Orange Business Services, is one of the world leaders in providing telecommunication services to multinational companies.

With its industrial project, “conquests 2015”, Orange is simultaneously addressing its employees, customers and shareholders, as well as the society in which the company operates, through a concrete set of action plans. These commitments are expressed through a new vision of human resources for employees; through the deployment of a network infrastructure upon which the Group will build its future growth; through the Group’s ambition to offer a superior customer experience thanks in particular to improved quality of service; and through the acceleration of international development

France Telecom (NYSE:FTE) is listed on Euronext Paris (compartment A) and on the New York Stock Exchange.
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