MANILA, Philippines -- Most people have no idea how to recycle their old mobile phones which usually end up lying useless at home, according to a recent study by Nokia.

Nokia surveyed 6,500 phone users in 13 countries -- Finland, Germany, Italy, Russia, Sweden, UK, United Arab Emirates, USA, Nigeria, India, China, Indonesia and Brazil.

Based on the survey's findings, people on the average have owned around five phones, but very few think about or have no idea how to recycle phones they no longer use.

Three out of every four people added that they don't even think about recycling their devices and nearly half were unaware that it is even possible to do so.

Only three percent of people recycle their mobile phones, which, in Nokia's case, means giving back the old units at authorized centers.

"If each of the three billion people globally owning mobiles brought back just one unused device we could save 240,000 tons of raw materials and reduce greenhouse gases to the same effect as taking 4 million cars off the road," said Markus Terho, Nokia's director for environmental affairs.

Majority of old phones are simply being kept at homes never used. One-fourth of those surveyed said they give the phones to friends or family or sell them as second-hand devices, the survey showed.

According to Nokia, nearly 80 percent of every Nokia device is recyclable and can yield precious materials that can be reused to help make new products such as kitchen kettles, park benches, dental fillings or even saxophones and other metal musical instruments.

In the Philippines, Nokia "care" centers are designated drop-off points for unused phones.

"We are in the process of updating our recycle bins and are waiting for a new batch to come in," said Nikka Singson-Abes, Nokia Philippines corporate communications manager via text message.

The Nokia executive, however, did not indicate how many phones have been submitted for recycling. These old phones are collected and passed on to a third-party for recycling, she said.