Orange launches waste saving Mini SIM
Orange has announced that it has become the first European mobile operator to introduce mini SIM cards, an introduction aimed at reducing the amount of waste produced when customers receive new SIMs for an upgrade or new contract.
Customers receive new SIMs embedded in a credit card-sized piece of plastic. Just ten percent of the material is used for the plug-in SIM with the remaining 90% of the card’s plastic unused. The mini SIM cards will halve the amount of waste generated in providing customers with new SIMs by embedding two SIMs in each credit-card sized item during manufacturing.
As an indication of the scale of the issue, more than 2.9 billion SIM cards weighing 11,600 tonnes were shipped to mobile operators across the globe in 2008.
The trial of the mini SIM cards has commenced with select pay-monthly customers and in future will be extended to cover all new SIMs. SIM card providers, Gemalto, Sagem Orga and Oberthur Technologies, are supplying Orange with the mini SIM cards.
Tom Alexander, CEO of Orange UK, said: “Orange has recently made some significant changes in becoming a more sustainable, greener business. For instance, 80% of our energy now comes from renewable sources, customers are encouraged to recycle handsets in our stores, and we’ve committed to a universal mobile phone charger. Ultimately our goal is to have no waste involved in providing new SIMs and to use organic materials. This is just one small but significant step further in that journey of reducing the environmental impact of our business for our customers.”
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