Mazuma Mobile, the mobile phone recycling service, has announced that it has now paid out £100m to customers, and recycled 2.88m phones since launching in 2006.
The average value of old handsets Mazuma receives has increased year on year from £25 in March 09, to £35 in March 10, and £43 in March 2011. Apple iPhones make up 9 per cent of all phones sold to Mazuma Mobile.
“This increase is being driven by the rise of smartphone usage in the UK,” says Charlo Carabott, Mazuma Mobiles MD. “Consumers understand that their phone devalues quickly, and so they use mobile phone recycling as a way to offset the cost of upgrading to a new model.” 
Mazuma has now introduced tablet recycling, and the company says it anticipates customers wanting to upgrade to new tablets such as the Dell Streak, BlackBerry PlayBook, Motorola XOOM and HTC Flyer.
“The recent launch of the iPad 2 and announcement of equivalent Android devices has seen a surge in demand for tablet recycling from our customer base,” says Carabott.
