Orange launches waste saving Mini SIM

It may already be one of the smaller components in a mobile phone, but that has not stopped mobile operator Orange targeting SIM cards in its attempts to cut waste.

The company announced yesterday that it is to trial a new type of mini SIM card that promises to halve the amount of waste generated each time it issues customers with new or upgraded SIMs.

Currently, new SIM cards are issued embedded in a credit card-sized piece of plastic where just 10 per cent of the material is used for the plug-in SIM. Orange said that the new mini cards will have two different SIM embedded in each piece of plastic that is manufactured, resulting in half the amount of material being sent out to customers.

A spokeswoman for the company said that new card would be trialled on selected pay-monthly customers, before being rolled out more widely across the business.

Tom Alexander, chief executive of Orange UK, said that the mini SIMs were the first step in the company’s strategy to create zero-waste SIM cards. " Ultimately our goal is to have no waste involved in providing new SIMs and to use organic materials," he said. "This is just one small but significant step further in that journey of reducing the environmental impact of our business for our customers."

Orange said that while the waste savings the result from halving the amount of packaging provided with each SIM may appear minimal, the innovation could result in a significant reduction in plastic waste if it is adopted across the industry.

The company said that more than 2.9 billion SIM cards weighing 11,600 tonnes were shipped to mobile operators across the globe in 2008, meaning that the new cards have the potential to cut plastic waste by almost 6,000 tonnes a year.