Promoting Resource Efficiency and Recycling

Mobile phones contain gold, silver, copper, palladium and other metals, all of which are valuable recyclable materials in light of Japan's relative lack of mineral resources. DOCOMO began collecting and recycling used mobile phones in 1998, and in 2001 we partnered with the Telecommunications Carriers Association and built the Mobile Recycle Network, which collects and recycles mobile phones regardless of the original provider. In fiscal 2010, we collected roughly 4.09 million phones and have now collected a cumulative total of some 76.64 million.
In order to further promote this initiative, stickers publicizing our phone recycling program are posted at docomo Shops. They clearly explain that privacy is protected by destroying the mobile phone right in front of the customer. The number of phones collected has been increasing every year, and we intend to further raise awareness of mobile phone recycling through various events and publicity activities.

Our e-billing service allows customers paying their monthly mobile phone usage charges via bank transfer or credit card to view their monthly bill on i-mode, sp-mode or the Internet. Subscriptions to the service in fiscal 2010 totaled approximately 4.8 million, an increase of 340,000 from the previous year. As a result, converted to A4-size paper, the service saved roughly 208.71 million sheets of paper, approximately 13.73 million more than the previous fiscal year.

The Web Statement Service is provided to let customers view statements from the DCMX credit service over the Internet. Over 50% of new DCMX members have signed up for the service, and applications in fiscal 2010 totaled approximately 1.54 million, bringing the cumulative total as of March 31, 2011 to over 2.5 million. In terms of A4-size paper, this amounts to a reduction of roughly 7.67 million sheets, or approximately 4.62 million more than the previous fiscal year.

DOCOMO has been working to reduce the number of pages in its mobile phone user manuals. The manual, which has tended to run around 500 pages, was reduced to about 130 pages. On some models released in the winter of fiscal 2010, CD-size paper was used instead of B6-size, which created further reductions. As a result, in fiscal 2010, the total amount of paper used in user manuals was reduced by an addition 15 tons. This also made phone packaging more compact, which reduces CO₂ emissions generated in transport of mobile phones to docomo Shops and other retail outlets.
To ensure that customer convenience does not suffer as a result of these initiatives, i-mode mobile phones are embedded with user guides. Three new smartphone models launched in March 2011 include an e-manual, a user manual application. Both the user guide and e-manual provide detailed information on how to use the phone and include a function that launches the settings screen from keyword searches or manual text with just one touch. User manuals are also available on DOCOMO's website.
Going forward, we plan to make user manuals smaller and convert to digital manuals for all phone models to further reduce paper use and CO₂ emissions from transport.