Increasing awareness among consumers of the link between conflict minerals and mobile phones 

More than thirty different metals are needed in the production of mobile phones, computers and other electronics products. Research has shown that serious breaches of human rights and environmental problems take place during the mining of the raw materials in developing countries. Access to these raw materials also fans the flames of bloody conflicts in countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where cassiterite (tin), gold, coltan and wolframite are mined. SOMO has played a role in promoting increased attention for this subject. Partly as a result of this, recent media attention paid to subjects such as 'conflict minerals' and 'blood mobile phones' has been based on knowledge from SOMO and studies by the European campaign makeITfair.
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Recycling and re-use of electronics is being given more attention

The mountain of waste from computers, television sets, mobile phones and other old electronic products (e-waste) is growing. This is causing serious problems for people and the environment worldwide. The problem of e-waste can be tackled by introducing changes to the recycling and production of electronics. This is a reason for SOMO to propose policy changes and to encourage companies to take responsibility for the waste attached to their products. This was fleshed out in 2010 by the contribution by SOMO to the European policy debate on the electronic waste directive (the WEEE directive), which is currently showing a cautious improvement. In addition, SOMO called on mobile telephony providers – via the makeITfair campaign – to ensure more recycling of telephones. As a result, recycling is now higher on the list of priorities of mobile telephony providers.
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Electronics companies are acknowledging their responsibility for the mining of metals in developing countries

During a meeting in 2007 of the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC), an initiative of businesses in the electronics sector, companies referred to SOMO's proposal that they take responsibility for the mining of metals for their products as 'utter madness'. According to the companies, the mining of raw materials does not fall under their responsibility, but under that of their suppliers. Moreover, how could they know what went wrong at the start of the chain? Several years later, after various studies and dialogues, electronics companies understood their influential position and recognised their responsibility.
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