Telefonica’s 4m-device recycling update tests 2030 targets

Telefonica said it processed 4 million devices through reuse and recycling in 2025, mostly routers and set-top boxes. The update supports its circular-economy narrative, but target-level disclosure remains incomplete around network equipment and mobile-phone refurbishment.

• Routers and set-top boxes made up 3 million processed devices See also: Telefónica.

• Handset and network-equipment disclosures still lack full target comparability See also: Vodafone reinforces fixed network in Greece and UK.

The fact

Telefonica said it processed 4 million devices through reuse and recycling in 2025, collected from customers, operations and offices. The total was mainly customer equipment: 3 million routers and set-top boxes, with 75% of all devices reused and the remainder recycled. The update sits under Telefonica’s 2022 Circular Economy Plan, which targets zero waste by 2030, eco-design for new equipment, 100% reuse, resale or recycling of network equipment by 2025, and 500,000 refurbished mobile phones per year by 2030. Telefonica also cited more than 780,000 reused network-equipment units, nearly 95 tonnes of collected handsets and over 357,000 reused mobile devices, but did not clearly align every figure with its stated targets.

The Assessment

Telefonica is showing genuine circular-economy execution at operational scale. Reusing routers, set-top boxes, handsets and network kit can reduce waste, embedded emissions and the need to procure new hardware. But the intelligence signal is not only the volume. It is the gap between headline activity and target-level disclosure. Saying 100% of collected network equipment was reused or recycled is narrower than proving all network equipment met the 2025 pledge. The handset data also looks material, but without a timeframe it is harder to measure against the 2030 refurbishment target. For telcos, circular economy reporting is becoming a credibility test. See also: Glean says telecom AI faces governance not model hurdles.

What to Watch

Watch whether Telefonica clarifies its 2025 network-equipment target and reports annual progress toward 500,000 refurbished phones by 2030. Peer operators may face pressure to separate collected, reused, recycled and distributed-device baselines. See also: LARUS launches LARUS ONE partnership framework.