T-Mobile Takes Recycling Mobile

First UK mobile application showing where and what people can recycle

London, 28 September 2009:

T-Mobile is today launching an innovative new mobile application “ Recycle Guide “ which takes the confusion out of what you can recycle and where, both at home and on the go within the UK. It allows users to find out exactly where their nearest recycling points are, enabling them to reduce, reuse and recycle their waste. It’s available to download on a wide range of handsets, including BlackBerry® and Android-based smartphones such as the new T-Mobile Pulse.

T-Mobile has partnered with Valpak, who offer services to over 3,000 large and small businesses in the UK on recycling legislation. The app uses the largest recycling database in the UK “ and is designed to help tackle the 31 million tonnes of rubbish (the same weight as 3.5 million double-decker buses) that goes to landfill each year.

The app is ideal for people who don’t know what or where they can recycle “ whether it’s after moving house, or when heading off to a new city for university. It’s also perfect for those setting off on a self-catering or caravanning holiday in the UK, who don’t want their break from work to be a break from recycling.

As well as information about standard household items such as paper and plastic, the application also gives details on where to recycle more unusual items, from mobile phones and Christmas trees, to garden waste and bike frames. And with tips on how to recycle more, links to useful sites such as recycle-more.co.uk, and the option to keep track of what they’ve recycled so far, with T-Mobile’s Recycle Guide, reusing, reducing and recycling couldn’t be easier. The Android version of the app takes this even further, with the option for users to demonstrate how committed they are to the green cause by pledging to recycle a certain amount, and sharing that promise with a friend.

Allison Murray, Head of Corporate Responsibility at T-Mobile, said: Although national recycling rates are on the rise, thousands of potentially recyclable materials still get thrown away every day purely because people don’t know where the nearest recycling point is. We don’t often hear about the link between throwing waste in landfill and the contribution it makes to global warming, when in fact methane gas produced from landfill sites is a powerful greenhouse gas. Methane accounted for about eight percent of the UK’s greenhouse has emissions in 2007.³We’ve harnessed the latest mobile technology in partnership with Valpak to make it easier for people find out what they can recycle and where, saving them time and money “ on top of doing their bit for the environment.

The application can be downloaded for free from www.thespark.t-mobile.co.uk or by texting RECYCLE to 80988. Normal data browsing rates apply “ if you don’t have an internet option included in your plan, you might be charged to go online to download it. It’s also available via our web portals, T-Zones and web˜n’walk, and Android Marketâ„¢.

The launch of the new app coincides with the publication of the second issue of Good Call, T-Mobile’s corporate responsibility publication, available online now at www.t-mobile.co.uk/responsibility. The magazine is an opportunity for T-Mobile customers to find out about the company’s social and environmental initiatives, and how they can get involved.

Good Call features information on the Spark “ a scheme run in partnership with national volunteering charity TimeBank where T-Mobile staff and customers share ideas to create practical solutions to combat social and environmental issues. It’s been in action in Sunderland, where fifteen young people not in education, employment and training (NEETs) from local charity Pallion Action Group, worked with volunteers from T-Mobile’s Customer Contact Centre in Doxford, helping to turn their ideas for local projects on climate change into reality. There’s also an update on Txt Up Stand Up, the anti-bullying campaign fronted by Luke Pasqualino of Skins fame, and information about Content Lock, T-Mobile’s free service to help parents block their children from accessing inappropriate content over their phone.

Commenting on Good Call, Allison Murray said: T-Mobile is committed to being a responsible business, and Good Call is our way of showing how we’re doing in all areas of CR. By taking the publication online, not only is it available to all consumers all the time, it also lessens its environmental impact by cutting down on printing and publishing.

- Ends -

Notes to editors

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bloom/actions/recycling.shtml

www.defra.gov.uk/environment/statistics/globatmos/gagccukem

Contacts:

T-Mobile Press Line +44 (0) 7017 150 150

Brands2Life +44 (0) 207 592 1200

T-Mobile’s mobile phone recycling scheme

In addition to the Recycle application, as a responsible company, T-Mobile offers free mobile phone recycling to all its customers. We provide a freepost bag in the box of every new phone we sell.

Customers can send their old phone and it will either be refreshed and resold in emerging markets or broken down and recycled. In return, the customer can get up to £150, or choose to send that amount to a charity of their choice.

Emerging market countries can make use of recycled phones returned in good condition, and recycling cuts down the environmental waste associated with breaking up a phone.

Other facts about recycling:

· Recycling a glass bottle instead of making a new one can save enough energy to power a 100 watt light bulb for almost an hour

· Recycling a tonne of card or paper can save 1.3 tonnes of greenhouse gases

· The energy wasted when rubbish goes in your bin instead of to recycling could give you 500 baths, 3,500 showers or 5,000 hours of television

· If UK homes recycled everything, they could save 31 million tonnes of rubbish from going to landfill each year. That's the same weight as 3.5 million double-decker buses “ enough to form a queue from London to Sydney and back

· In 2004, plastic bottle recycling saved enough energy to heat and light 1,700 homes

· Recycling clothes saves more energy than recycling glass - it takes ten times more energy to make a tonne of textiles than it does a tonne of glass

· According to the Love Food Hate Waste campaign, Wasting food costs the average family £420 a year¦If we all stop wasting food that could have been eaten, the CO2 impact would be the equivalent of taking one in five cars off the road.

· The average British family throws away 6 trees worth of paper every year (source Waste Watch)

· If everyone in the world consumed as many natural resources as the average UK person we’d need 3 planets to support us (source www.bioregional.com/our-vision/ one-planet-living )

About T-Mobile UK

T-Mobile is one of the world’s largest mobile operators with more than 148 million customers worldwide and is the service provider of choice for 16.7 million customers in the UK.

T-Mobile offers a range of innovative products and services, such as Solo, the SIM-only plan Combi, a traditional minutes and text package, and Flext, the UK’s first flexible tariff. T-Mobile continues to innovate with new devices such as the UK’s first Androidâ„¢-based smart phone, the T-Mobile G1, now with over 1,000 available applications. T-Mobile has pioneered the mobile internet, and operates an award-winning 3G network with speeds of up to 4.5Mbps. As a pioneer of deep network sharing in the UK, T-Mobile plans to deliver close to complete population coverage for 3G services in 2010.

For more information about T-Mobile UK, please visit www.t-mobile.co.uk

About Valpak

Duncan Simpson, Director of Marketing, Valpak said: "It is the aim of Valpak and its members to encourage more recycling of packaging, WEEE and batteries. We originally did this work through our successful website, recycle-more. The website helps people recycle-more things more often by telling them what they can recycle and where. The bank locator allows consumers to access information about specific materials and locations they can recycle at home, at school, at home, when on holiday and shopping."

Steve Gough, CEO, Valpak continues: "By teaming up with T-Mobile we are able to take information previously only available to those with web access at home, or static information on a leaflet, and open that information, through new technology to many others. This provides so much more for the householder." www.valpak.co.uk

About The Spark

The Spark is a new initiative by T-Mobile in partnership with TimeBank designed to give young people not in education, employment or training the chance to develop ideas to combat social and environmental issues and turn those ideas into reality with the help of T-Mobile staff volunteers, trained by TimeBank.

About TimeBank

TimeBank is a national volunteering charity that tackles social issues by finding ways for people to give their time that inspire them and match their lives. For more information on ways to volunteer visitwww.timebank.org.uk

Recycle was developed for T-Mobile by Creative North: www.creativenorth.co.uk