O2 Recycle, the recycling initiative from the UK’s leading mobile provider O2, has convincingly claimed a new Guinness World Record title, with the help of thousands of people from across the UK who have been recycling their old phones. Similarly, as of last week O2 Recycle broke through the £20m paid to customers mark.

The record-breaking challenge, which took place from Friday 7 October to Thursday 13 October 2011, was to collect the highest number of used mobile phones in one week and help raise money for O2 Recycle’s charity programme.

It saw existing O2 customers, and those keen to be involved, take part to set a new record of 10,310 phones collected and thoroughly smash the existing record of 6,130. As well as breaking the World Record, O2 Recycle has subsequently raised £28,176 for charity as part of this challenge.

The challenge took place in partnership with recycling specialist Redeem, who collected and counted all of the phones. Redeem is responsible for ensuring that all phones are recycled or refurbished responsibly.

All profits generated from the O2 Recycle programme, and the world record breaking challenge will be donated to O2’s Think Big programme, which offers young people aged between 13 and 25 in the UK the chance to receive funding, training and support to develop ideas or initiatives that can make things better for them, their community or surroundings. It can be anything from starting a dance club, to helping restore an urban garden.

The money raised from this challenge has the potential to positively impact over 9,000 young people and help Think Big projects right across the country.

Bill Eyres, Head of Sustainability at O2 says: “This challenge has helped to liberate thousands of mobile phones which have been sitting in people’s drawers across the UK. We hope through initiatives like this that we can encourage people to see the benefits of mobile phone recycling in terms of both doing good for the environment and helping raise money for good causes.”

As well as helping to support O2’s Think Big programme, which makes a real difference to the lives of many disadvantaged young people by championing their ideas, all recycled handsets help the environment by diverting handsets away from landfill sites where they can cause pollution and contribute to global warming.

While the challenge is now completed, there is still an opportunity to recycle your old devices. Simply go to www.o2recycle.co.uk, or call 0845 505 0202.