Green phones still a few years away: Nokia

The factory of Nokia is pictured in Bochum January 18, 2008. Nokia, the world's top cellphone maker, said on Tuesday it plans to close its production plant in Bochum, north west Germany, by mid-2008 and may cut up to 2,300 staff.

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Cellphones from recycled materials are a few years away from reaching consumers' hands, a senior official at Nokia said on Thursday, adding the handset maker expects the green push will boost demand.

"We believe it will become a competitive factor," Markus Terho, a director at Nokia's environmental affairs unit, told a news conference.

Nokia has been promoting recycling cellphones and materials used in phones and Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, the chief executive of the world's top cellphone maker, introduced an ecophone concept phone at a trade show in Barcelona in February.

Terho said due to lack of availability of recycled materials in very large scale it would take some time before such phones could reach the market.

"It's a few years away," Terho said, adding that recycled materials already accounted for 40-60 percent of the metal parts in Nokia's current phones.

He said financial gains were often helping companies to act in more environmentally friendly ways. By introducing smaller packages in early 2006, Nokia saved 100 million euros ($158.5 million) on transport and material costs by end of 2007.

(Reporting by Tarmo Virki, editing by Will Waterman)