A Survey On The Extent Of The Awareness Of Mobile Phone Users On Mobile Phone Disposal In Kenya

Abstract

The growth in telephone access in Africa has been largely fuelled by mobile cellular communications. I he mobile telecommunication sector qualities as one of Africa's success stories that will go down the annals of history. Africa s mobile market has been the fastest growing compared to am region o\ er the last five years. The wireless boom has been caused by the combination of sector liberalization - which has seen the licensing of multiple cellular operators in most African markets -and sen ice innovation in the form of a variety of products. The research was conducted through a survey on mobile phone users. The research sought to find out the extent to which mobile phone users were aware about safe disposal of mobile phones. In addition the research went ahead to establish the avenues available to mobile phone manufacturers and users in order to enhance safe mobile disposal. The sample consisted of 80 respondents with a response rate of 60%. From the research it was found out that 49% of the respondents left faulty phone accessories in the locker, 33% threw the accessories in the waste basket and the remaining 18% returned them to the dealers. The research also revealed that there were no enough incentives to encourage the customers to return mobile phones to the dealers. It was also noted that the legislation in Kenya that governs the disposal of electrical and electronic equipment was not widely known by the users. The research revealed that there was the need for the mobile manufacturers to manufacture handsets from recyclable materials. The manufacturers should also avail information on handset disposal at the point of sale and do a follow-up using the available media. The mobile services providers can also play an important role on mobile disposal by availing the information on the face of the scratch cards In addition they can notify the subscribers on the available disposal channels through text messages. The government through the designated agencies such as the Communications Commission of Kenya and national Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) needs to be more assertive in mobile phone disposal measures. The researcher also encountered problems in the course of the research. First the researcher could not attain a complete response rate. There was the tendency of halo effect where the some respondents answered some question in particular patter .Finally it was also difficult for some respondents to spare their time to fill the questionnaire