AbstractsBiology & Animal Science

The aim of this research is to find out why people recycle their old mobile phones lazily. The interest to recycle electronic equipment has enlarged in past few years; the reason for this is the aim of the European Union (EU) to increase recycling as a whole. In the background, there is the objective of the EU to reduce waste by delegating the responsibility of the products waste handling to producers. The European Parliament and the Council have passed a directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) (2002/96/EC) and its amendment (2003/108/EC). This study is descriptive and aims at answering the questions about mobile phone owners recycling behaviour. The aim is to find reasons for consumers not recycling their phones, and hence, help to create measures to raise the takeback percentage. The results will be exploited in Nokia Corporation when they plan organizing the takeback system and possible future recycling campaigns. The primary research question is: What is a (non-)recycler like? For example, are there differences in mobile phone recycling behaviour between Finnish cultural areas? Theories concerning environmental behaviour (e.g. the Theory of Planned Behaviour) that were used to create a theoretical framework for the study are presented. The questionnaire was produced based on that framework, and so was the analysis. The questionnaires, 58 altogether, were filled in three Finnish cities, Helsinki, Turku and Lappeenranta, in February and March. The study is qualitative, but it is strongly supported by quantitative analysis. This means that the description of themes is to a great extent quantified. The results have shown that many phones are stored at home; only five people had recycled their phones. Usually phones were kept as spare phones, but also the lack of information about the takeback of used phones and laziness were reasons for not recycling phones. Most of the respondents considered recycling mobile phones important. Ten respondents have heard about the recent Finnish recycling campaign by Nokia and the WWF; the opinions were positive. By giving more information using, e.g., the internet or the mass media, about recycling mobile phones, the recycling percentage could be amounted. The non mobile phone recyclers were mostly women and over fifty. The capital city area could also need some specific attention as the mobile phone recycling activity was quite poor. Two questions were discovered needing more research: the best way(s) of informing people and people s limits in inconvenience when mobile phone recycling is concerned. Työn tarkoituksena on löytää syitä siihen miksi ihmiset kierrättävät laiskasti matkapuhelimia. Kiinnostus elektroniikkalaitteiden kierrättämiseen on kasvanut viime vuosina, koska Euroopan Unioni tähtää kierrätyksen lisäämiseen. Taustalla on EU:n tavoite vähentää jätettä siirtämällä tuottajille vastuun tuotteiden jätehuollosta. Euroopan parlamentti ja neuvosto ovat antaneet direktiivin sähkö- ja elektroniikkaromusta (SER) (2002/96/EC) sekä sen muunnoksen…