People in Narromine Shire, New South Wales, Australia are receiving a rather more direct environmental incentive than usual to recycle their old mobile phones. They are being encouraged to recycle them to assist in tree planting in the Barmah Millewa Forest, an environmentally-sensitive area near the Murray River – the home of River Red Gum and the Superb Parrot, an endangered species.
This is a result of the “Old Phones, More Trees” campaign run by a partnership between MobileMuster and Landcare Australia. The incentive to recycle is that a tree will be planted in one of four places in Australia, two of which are on the Murray River in return for every kilogram of mobile phones collected for recycling between May 1 and World Environment Day on June 5.
The residents of Narrowmine Shire will be contributing to improving the environment of one of Australia’s most important wetland areas and, of course, in recycling their old handsets they will be helping to avoid environmental damage by recovering hazardous materials. 90% of mobile phone components are recoverable and can be used in either new products or various by-products.
The MobileMuster and Landcare Australia partnership aims to plant some 15,000 trees on the Murray River in the Barmah-Millewa Forest, which is on the border of NSW and Victoria, and the Lower Lakes in South Australia. Across the country they have the goal of planting 30,000 trees, an increase of 5000 over last year.