Phone scheme rings changes (From Your Local Guardian)

Phone scheme rings changes

12:10pm Thursday 25th January 2007 in

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The environmental impact of gimmicky mobile phones may not be immediately apparent to their users.

But as mobile phone upgrades become more frequent, out-of-fashion handsets are becoming a significant source of unrecycled waste.

One billion mobiles are manufactured globally each year, with only 15 per cent being recycled.

Now a Wandsworth business is trying to reduce the number of phones piled into landfill sites with a new, environmentally-friendly, mobile service.

The Green Mobile scheme has been set up by Resource Utilities, a company that provides charities with low-cost phone services, to help green charities raise money and publicise the environmental problems caused by the disposal of handsets. The premise is simple: the company asks its customers to keep their current mobile for one more year and in return donates £25 to green charities.

Resource Utilities' managing director Adrian Potter said: "You hear a lot about how we need to protect the environment and save the planet. Green Mobile will enable people to do something positive and save money at the same time. "

"We ask customers to keep their current mobile phone for one more year and in return we donate to green charities. It's a double whammy that we hope will make a real contribution to helping the environment," he added.

Friends of the Earth and the Woodland Trust will be the first recipients of these donations and will also receive a further six per cent of the customer's monthly bill, depending on which charity the customer chooses to support. Other green charities will be encouraged to participate in the scheme in the future.

A spokesman for Friends of the Earth said: "Green Mobile is a genuinely green initiative that benefits you, the environment and Friends of the Earth. It's a great idea."

Sue Holden, chief executive of the Woodland Trust, said: "Just by switching to Green Mobile you'll have planted six trees, and then you'll continue to give as you go at no extra cost. This is a fantastic way to fund our work of planting trees and protecting woodlands."

For more information visit greenmobile.co.uk or call the Green Mobile team on 08452 333 333.