As part of its ongoing commitment to encouraging recycling of mobile devices, launched in 2005, Orange promotes the creation of partnerships in Africa that aim to support the implementation of local initiatives.
This has now led to the inauguration of the fifth mobile waste collection facility in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire in the presence of the Ivoirian Minister for the Environment, Urban Cleanliness and Sustainable development, Mr Kouadio Remi ALLA and the CEO of the Orange Côte d’Ivoire Télécom group (http://www.orange.com), represented by Mr Joseph PITAH, Director of Networks and Information Systems. 
To mark the event, a first container loaded with 10 tonnes of mobile waste will leave the Côte d’Ivoire for recycling in France. The first of these collection and dismantling facilities for mobile phones was opened in March 2010 in Burkina Faso. Others followed in Benin, Madagascar and Niger.
There has been lots of major environmental issues with the growing mobile penetration in Africa. Mobile device on the African continent has grown to about 500 million, as well as discarded handsets which are often disposed by simply throwing away or by burning due to lack of recycling facilities in the majority of African countries.
Recycling of these huge volume of mobile waste is one of the major CSR commitment of Orange, a network operator present in 20 African countries. These waste is now collected for transport to France for recycling, thanks to the workshop set up by Orange and Emmaüs International.
Each facility is run by six local employees and more than 10 tonnes of mobile waste is collected each year and sent to France for recycling.
In total, since 2010, more than 140 tonnes of mobile waste have already been sent to France for recycling, and over 30 long-term jobs have been created at the African facilities. Over the next five years, Orange and Emmaüs International plan to continue opening new collection facilities, confirming their partnership on this project, which contributes to local economies and social welfare while protecting the environment.
In France, a young company called Morphosis takes direct delivery of containers of waste from the five African collection facilities at the port in Le Havre. On receipt of the containers, Morphosis sorts the waste into different types by material. The next step is to process the waste, extracting the rare metals that can be re-used in the manufacture of new products and devices. Morphosis is a particularly inventive and effective player in this new market in France.
