Zain National Mobile Phone and e-Waste Recycling Campaign which was flagged off in March 2011 enters its second year and the company's commitment to making a difference in the environment as strong as ever.

The campaign was the first ever to offer the public an opportunity to safely dispose old and unusable mobile phones and encouraged thousands of people to dispose e-waste in a responsible manner. 

"Zain Bahrain is pleased with the results of the first year of the Zain National Mobile Phone and e-Waste Recycling Campaign. We believe that it has made the public more aware on the danger of carelessly disposing of mobile phones and batteries which make up the bulk of e-waste," said Zain Bahrain's Corporate Communications Manager Samya Hussein, "By adopting e-waste management as our major CSR project in 2011, we believe we opened a new avenue for responsible and interactive environmental awareness and the response from the community was terrific."

The campaign will continue through 2012 with more or less the same parameters. The focus remains on supporting the public in responsible disposal of mobile handsets and batteries. The old mobile phone can be taken to any Zain Experience Shop or Polytechnic Bahrain where it can be discarded in a separate drop box which is placed for discarded unusable mobile phones.

All e-waste generated by this initiative will be collected, sorted and professionally disposed of in the safest manner possible by Zain Bahrain, who has engaged Enviroserve, a respected environmental waste disposal company for this task. 

"What makes this campaign especially significant is that it represents the power of a simple act of civic responsibility," Mrs. Hussein said, "Since mobile handsets and batteries are the most frequently disposed e-waste component in our lives, every time we dispose these responsibly we save our soil, our landfills and groundwater from hazardous pollution." 

She added, "Almost all components of a mobile handset can be either recycled or used in a way so that nothing goes into landfills as e-waste since they are mainly made up of plastic, ceramic, or metals. We shall continue to strengthen the Zain National Mobile Phone and e-Waste Recycling Campaign with new ideas as it matures over Year Two and are confident the public will support us as always."