Fairphone's 2020 recycling program: 55% reuse, 45% recycling

[urs_lesse]

While I brought up Fairphone’s current recycling program elsewhere before, I think it deserves to get its own topic after all.

The program gives you 40€ back after the purchase of a Fairphone 3 in Fairphone’s own webshop (not in dealers’ & resellers’ shops) if you send in an FP2 and 20€ back for an FP1. The smartphone’s IMEI must be clearly identifiable. For the time being, the program expires by 30 September 2020.

Please follow the exact instructions in the link below to participate in the program.

Recycle your phone - Fairphone

What made me eventually post this as a standalone topic is that Fairphone has now added some “what happens to the phones you send in” information. According to the website, 55% of the phones sent in actually get back to the market again. 45% get recycled.

[Ria_Bol]

Ik heb maanden geleden mijn Fairphone2 opgestuurd om te recyclen nadat ik een Fairphone3 had gekocht. Ik heb nog steeds niets terug gehoord of geld ontvangen.

[Lidwien]

You only get money if you buy your Fairphone 3 through Fairphone’s own webshop.
I happen to know that you bought your Fairphone 3 through a reseller.
So, unfortunately, you don’t qualify.

[Ria_Bol]

Than I want my Fairphone back.

Verzonden van mijn Fairphone 3

[AlbertJP]

@Ria_Bol, hier op het forum kunnen we helaas daar niet bij helpen, je zou hiervoor contact moeten opnemen met Fairphone support: The Forum Guide to... Fairphone Support

[urs_lesse]

The recycling program has been extended until 30 June. Cashback sums unchanged.

[jones]

The recycling program has been extended again, this time until 13 July 2020 . Cashback sums are still unchanged

[Mixigodo]

I sent mine yesterday, after having gone to the Spanish shipping agency and having to return home with the packages because I was sending more phones than they admit. In case someone wants to send mobile phones from Spain: Correos (the spanish post office for this promotion) only accepts two mobile phones in each shipment!

[urs_lesse]

Cashback rates for FP2 lowered to 40€ and for FP1 to 20€. No cashback anymore for other phones.

[Stanzi]

Shouldn’t it actually be the other way round? The probability that a FP2 is still working is much higher than for a FP1, so the incentive for FP2 users to buy a FP3 should be lower in my opinion…

[Kat]

Is there a chance that Fairphone will promote the recycling of other phones than Fairphones again at some point? Otherwise, I’d rather bring it to a recycling station of my home town to save CO2 (shipping).

[urs_lesse]

From Miquel Ballester’s current The Guardian interview:

“The number of phones returned for recycling under our takeback scheme has increased by more than 18 percentage points year on year to 23% for 2020 so far.

“An average of 45% of our eight focus materials (tin, tungsten, gold, copper, cobalt, neodymium, lithium and plastic) have been sustainably sourced in 2020, compared with 32.75% at the launch of Fairphone 3 and 25.37% for Fairphone 2.”

If I get that right, “sustainably sourced” probably equals “sourced from recycling” given you cannot really seed, grow & harvest these materials (well, maybe some kinds of plastic, in a way).

[Andl]

Ich kann leider nirgendwo die genaue Vorgehensweise herausfinden.
Muss ich zuerst mein altes Handy einsenden, oder vorher das FP3 bestellen um die Gutschrift zu erhalten?

[urs_lesse]

Zum genauen Ablauf kommst Du, wenn Du hier “Kostenlos beantragen” klickst:

Recycle deine alten Handys - Fairphone

Eine Gutschrift gibt es laut dem Formular nur, wenn ein Fairphone 3 im Fairphone-Shop gekauft wurde. Das Fairphone 3+ wird dort bislang nicht explizit erwähnt, ich würde aber vermuten, es ist auch einbezogen – nötigenfalls frage beim Fairphone-Support nach. Sobald es eine Bestellnummer für den FP3-Kauf gibt, kann das Versandlabel beantragt werden. Die Gutschrift für ein eingesandtes FP1 oder FP2 kommt dann nach einigen Wochen. Das Beantragen geht auch noch, wenn Du das FP3 bereits bekommen hast.

[Andl]

Vielen Dank für die schnelle Antwort!

[urs_lesse]

The 2020 recycling program has expired now, but there will be a new program as promised under the same link:

[Mixigodo]

I sent Fairphone for recycling program, on 19 June 2020 , two boxes with two phones each, which I was able to switch on and get the IMEI number from them (none of them were FPs, they were old phones I had at home). On August 11th I received an email with the subject “Thank you for recycling your previous phone” with a survey to assess the process. I did not receive anything else in my inbox.

I remember, as you can see by checking this thread, and as it says in this link, that at that time the 20 euro cashback for any phone was still active:

Note: The previous promotion of receiving a €75 Recycling Refund on your order if you sent us back a Fairphone 1 or Fairphone 2 or €20 for any other phone via our Recycling Program started 13 March 2020 and ended 13 July 2020. The previous promotion of receiving a €40 Recycling Refund on your order if you sent us back a Fairphone 1 or Fairphone 2 via our Recycling Program started 27 August 2019 and ended 12 March 2020.

Note: bold added by me

I don’t mind too much, because luckily my economy doesn’t depend on 20 euros more or less, and I would have recycled the phones anyway, and I’m glad I was able to collaborate with them environmentally. However, I have not been contacted by Fairphone to offer me the cashback or to confirm the correct reception of the phones (beyond the e-mail with the survey, but it has not any specific information), so I am saddened by the image of little seriousness of the company, which already, from what you read in the forum, seems to suffer from a slow and not always satisfactory customer service

[urs_lesse]

If you have bought your FP3 directly from Fairphone, I would contact them about the lack of the cashback.

[Mixigodo]

Yes, I did. But, come to think of it, I bought the Fairphone 3 at the end of August 2019, almost a year before my participation in the recycling programme. I can’t find any reference in the legal document that specifies the dates when the purchase of the FP3 has/had to be made. Does anyone have any experience with this?

In any case, what I find strange is that I have not received any notification beyond the satisfaction survey (which is probably sent automatically to the person who requested the shipping labels). The truth is that I don’t know if this is the general procedure, or if it is just my case.

Oh, and thank you for your answer and advice

[rae]

Hi @Mixigodo,

Sorry that you have up to now not been contacted yet! @urs_lesse has kindly alerted me to your post. You mention that you contacted us – any chance you still have your support ticket number handy? If not, could you make a new support ticket and then DM me that number so I can follow up on this asap? One of my colleagues in the support team will then reach out to you via email. Thanks!