There are more and more innovative ways to encourage consumers to recycle their mobile phones. A new firm, Plant My Phone, has come up with a different angle to reduce the amount of handsets going to landfill sites.
Consumers are used to the concept of sending their old phones for recycling using a post-paid envelope. In this latest scheme users can collect an envelope in various US cities or they can print a postage label out from the company’s website. Plant My Phone will plant new trees from the profits made from the phones sent in. The average two year old handset can help to plant up to 15 trees and an older version of Apple’s i-Phone in reasonable condition will achieve the planting of 79 trees.
Customers can find out how many trees their phone will get planted by using the Plant My Phone conversion table on the website. The company say that this latest initiative is aimed at trying to increase the very low rate of mobile phone recycling. Only about 10% of a potential 140 millon handsets a year are currently recycled.
Consumers will help to achieve the planting of a variety of trees in countries such as Honduras, Belize, Nicaragua, Panama, Ethiopia, Senegal, Burundi, Cameroon, Zambia, Nepal, India and the Philppines. Trees include Mahogany, Cocoa, Coffee, Oak, Teak, Acacia, Banana, Cedar, Laurel and Orange.