The next time you feel the lack of the latest touch screen, flip phone or other shiny technological bauble is damaging your street cred, consider that your old model contains a world of possibilities – not vintage Crazy Frog ringtones, but reincarnation as kitchen kettles, park benches, dental fillings, construction materials and musical instruments. Over 80 per cent of phone parts can be recycled, but only 3 per cent of users actually get round to it. 74 per cent don’t realise it’s possible, and the remainder don’t know how – in the mean time, our hunger for technology status symbols (on average we change up every six months in Lebanon) is producing around 240,000 tonnes of potential raw material reclaim every year. Nokia, in collaboration with AFDC and the Ministry of the Environment, has just launched the Take Back Program, which will see recycling points set up at Nokia Care Centres and AFDC centres across Lebanon; pass the word on and try and make recycling as trendy as BB messaging.

For recycling point locations, contact the AFDC (01 898475, 01 898476, 05 280430).