Collecting more than 1.5M phones on behalf of their direct clients
In line with their ambition to become the number one choice for their customers, Vodafone Germany is helping its clients to make better choices for them and the environment when purchasing devices.
Being a service provider, it’s essential for Vodafone to offer clear and appealing choices throughout the customer journey, and to go beyond the basics. This includes support on topics such as sustainability or electronic waste reduction, throughout the purchasing journey in an engaging way.
Client
Start of the partnership
June 2022
The Solution
For that reason, Vodafone Germany decided to use Closing the Loop’s service of waste compensation. The service was included in its Circular Mobile Strategy and labeled “One for One” back in 2022.
“One for One” is a promise to private customers. For one phone a private customer buys at Vodafone Germany, one scrap phone will be collected and recycled. The collection is done in countries that lack formal waste management systems, by Closing the Loop.
The Service
The Result
Up to May 2025, 2.7 million scrap phones have been collected in Ghana. This prevents 154 tons of hazardous waste from ending up in landfills and will safely turn it into reusable materials. The project is one of the world’s largest phone recycling schemes. Approximately 8 kgs of gold, 10,600 kgs of copper and 57 kg of silver will be extracted from the waste. It also has created more than 6,000 living wages for communities in Accra, Ghana, who are paid to collect the scrap phones.
Read more about the news of the 2.7M milestone here.
Watch the documentary (in German) about the work we do in Ghana for Vodafone here
Awards
Vodafone’s One for One campaign was extremely successful not only among their customers, but also the industry at large. In 2024 and 2025, their innovative and bold approach to communications was recognized by four separate panels, resulting in five prestigious awards.
Starting in October, with Vodafone winning two Digital Communications Awards – for Sustainability Communications and Corporate Social Responsibility, followed by the Deutschen Nachhaltigkeitspreis 2024 (German Sustainability Award). The year concluded with the European Excellence Awards recognising Vodafone in the category of Technology, Telecommunications and Consumer Electronics. Most recently, Vodafone’s One for One campaign won the 2025 SABRE Award for Best DACH Campaign, a global recognition of excellence in strategic communications.
A key driver of this success was Vodafone’s commitment to customer-centric communication strategies. By aligning their messaging with the values and expectations of its audience, with a campaign that reached 30M people, Vodafone engaged their customers and gained widespread industry recognition.
