The Irish children's charity, Jack & Jill Children's Foundation says that it is starting a nationwide drive to re-cycle over half a million old mobile phones. The charity estimates that for every 20,000 phones it receives, it will be able to support one new nurse to undertake their vital support work.
Re-cycling unwanted mobiles is especially relevant at this time of year, when the industry estimates that as many as a million new phones have entered the market over the Christmas period, adding to the universe of approximately 4 million mobiles in the Republic.
The campaign, which is being supported by many companies, groups and media owners, will kick-off with the distribution of Freepost envelopes through the news media. Unique collection facilities are being established in most public houses and pharmacies throughout the country, along with other major retail outlets.
Founder of Jack & Jill, Jonathan Irwin, commenting on the enthusiastic support for the campaign by celebrities and businesses alike, had this to say: "We have been bowled over by people's generosity in supporting this. Businesses have given freely of their facilities to aid the collection process, and are offering free or heavily discounted advertising. They seem to have really taken on board the fact that in re-cycling old mobiles, everybody wins: the giver feels good, the charity gets real hard cash, the environment wins, and the third world wins. They have realised that at the end of the day, what's the use of old phones languishing in a bottom drawer at home when they could actually be doing good for our babies, for so many causes and so many people?"
Past experience with smaller scale attempts to get people to re-cycle their old mobiles have met with mixed results due to lack of awareness, which is why this month Jack & Jill are undertaking one of the most concentrated campaigns ever, and it is their intention to repeat this campaign in January every year, building to a target of one million phones re-cycled annually. Irwin comments, "The public don't really like to see charities spending large sums of money fund-raising, which is why we are emphasising the incredible commitment and generosity of our many sponsors. Their gifts, some in kind and some in hard cash, mean that we can really create awareness, drive people out of their homes to post the old phones to us, or get them to collection points, without spending a fortune doing so"."
Posted to the site on 19th January 2007
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/21483.php