Adds more years to cell phones’ life, ensures environment-friendly disposal of handsets that are beyond repairs

Sharat K Verma/Solution World Bureau

Lalitpur (Nepal), March 31: The ever increasing e-waste of cell phones is a big problem across the world. A small initiative by a Nepal-based firm can be a big solution for this problem.

A firm here in Lalitpur district in Nepal has started a Green Phone initiative. The firm, SabKo Phone, adds more years to cell phones’ life. It, thus, results in their turning into e-waste late. The firm also ensures that the mobile phones, those are beyond repairs, are disposed of in an environment-friendly manner.

“Sabko Phone addresses a small but significant item adding up to e-waste – our beloved cell phones. After experiencing limited efficient repair options for phones and few possibilities for environment-friendly disposal in Nepal, we decided to explore what could be done. That was how and why Sabko Phone was born,” firm’s founder Shubhu Tewari told Solution World (solutionworld.news).

The firm is not just another moible phone repairing unit. It has a vision to enhance the life of mobile phone for as many years as it can so that these gadgets do not turn an e-waste so early. The firm tries repair even those phones for which other mechanics have given up. The firm is into repairing, buying and selling old mobile phones. It not only rapairs damaged and old handsets but also buys them. After buying, the firm refurbishes the same and makes it as good as a new one. Not only this, the firm also provides a warranty to customers who buy these refurbished phones.

“Our aim is to expand the lives of as many phones as possible. We plan to do so by providing super easy and trustworthy options for repairs. You get to pre-book your repair service by booking a convenient time. We also provide warranties (ranging from three to six months) for all repairs. If your phone is unrepairable or you just want to move on to a new model, don’t throw it away! We will buy your phone and make it like new. Then we sell it to a new happy owner,” said Tewari.

In addition to efficient, transparent and customized services with warranties, the firm claims to be helping save the planet! How? “First of all, we will be working in a carbon neutral manner, and any emission produced by our work will be neutralized by a ‘green’ project that we fund. Most importantly, parts of your phone that are no longer useful will be recycled in the most environmentally friendly and innovative manner,” Tewari said.

“The idea behind SabKo Phone is to prevent the millions of cell phones that are imported into Nepal every year from ending up as e-waste. Our aim is to make it more efficient for people to get their phones repaired—they can get quotes online, and we offer free pick-up and delivery—and we also buy used phones. The ones we can refurbish, we then re-sell. The ones we can’t, we safely dismantle for spare parts to use in other repairs. Anything we can’t reuse, we store for recycling,” said Uttam Kaffle, joint founder of SabKo Phone.

“Nepal imports virtually everything from abroad. If we can shift the demand from new, imported phones towards locally refurbished phones by even five per cent, more than a billion Rupees a year that are currently going abroad would remain here in Nepal,” Kaffle added.