News | 19 Oct 2021

Vodafone SIM cards to be made from 100% recycled plastic

The rollout of the environmentally friendly SIM cards reduces CO2 emissions as part of the fight against climate change.

Vodafone is rolling out SIM cards made from recycled plastic. The ‘Eco-SIMs’ are part of the company’s commitment to reducing its impact on the environment.

The roll out will bring the SIMs to all 12 European countries in which Vodafone Group operates – including the UK – as well as Egypt, Turkey and South Africa. The Eco-SIMs will arrive in different countries at different times; the UK will start seeing them in April 2022.

In 2020, Vodafone reduced the size of its plastic SIM card holders by half. This saves 340 tonnes of plastic a year, or the equivalent of 1,760 tonnes of CO2. The recycled Eco-SIMs, which will start rolling out in some countries from October 2021, will save an additional 1,280 tonnes of CO2 a year.

There will eventually be no need for SIM cards at all as eSIMs become more widespread.

Ahmed Essam, CEO, Vodafone UK, said: “Our ultimate aim is to remove plastic SIM cards entirely, but switching to Eco-SIMs, made from 100% recycled plastic, is a big step in the right direction. This is one of many changes we’re making to help us and our customers reduce our impact on the planet. We’ll be introducing Eco-SIMs for all of our customers in the UK from 1 April 2022.”

The roll out of Eco-SIMs is the latest step in Vodafone’s journey towards Net Zero, from powering its networks using renewable energy and improving the energy efficiency of its equipment to using more recycled and recyclable materials throughout its operations.

Vodafone is also enabling its customers to cut their carbon emissions using technologies such as IoT and 5G.

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