The Forest Park Conservancy, located in Portland, Oregon, has developed a recycling programme designed to benefit the trees. For each unwanted mobile phone donated to the conservancy, $1 will be given to preserving the trails in Forest Park. It may not sound like much to you, but it all adds up in the end.
The programme runs through 20 October and actually marries several worthwhile charities. For example, the actual mobile phones that are donated will go to the Massachusetts-based charity Cell Phone for Soliders, a scheme that supplies military personnel overseas with the means to call home. Cell Phones for Soldiers collects the phones and sends them off to ReCellular, an electronics and mobile phone recycling organisation in Minnesota. Funds from the recycling go into purchasing pre-paid calling cards for soldiers.
For the Forest Park end of things, AT&T is hosting the programme designed to help preserve the city-owned, pristine park of more than 5,000 acres. Donors can go to any AT&T retail store in Oregon and drop off any used handset. “Go Green” bins will be provided for easy recycling. AT&T has also agreed that if residents donate 25,000 phones, the FPC will receive up to $25,000.
With the small number of phones being recycled annually, it seems that the residents will have no problem locating one or more to give to a good cause.
For those who cannot get to one of the AT&T drop off sites, the Metro regional government has an online directory of mobile phone recyclers.
To learn more about the FPC, visit: forestparkconservancy.org
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