Parcel your old phones up and include some ID (so Santa knows who to send a thank you to) and send directly to; Starship Mobile Phone Appeal, Unit 6/30 Fleet St, Eden Terrace, Auckland 1021.
The Starship Mobile Phone Appeal is one those rare win-win situations.
The donation of an unwanted old mobile phone has a positive flow-on effect for our environment, both locally and internationally; for the children and parents who use Starship children’s hospital; and for people in emerging markets whose lives are improved by all the services that they can access with a low cost mobile phone.
Swapkit NZ Ltd with its charitable partner The Starship Foundation together provide many ways that New Zealand consumers and businesses can pass on unwanted mobile phones for reuse or recycling. Where the handsets cannot be reused, the Appeal provides environmentally responsible recycling that recovers well over 95% of component materials that can then be used for other products.
The Appeal is strongly supported by the telecommunications industry and is currently seeking approval from the Ministry for Environment for the scheme to be recognised as New Zealand’s first fully accredited mobile phone recycling scheme.
When you consider the scale of the Appeal, it’s clear that the positive environmental impacts are significant. Since launching 2009, the Starship Mobile Phone Appeal has recycled a whopping 30 tonnes of end of life phones and accessories. Without the Appeal, we believe a much higher number of old mobiles, batteries and accessories would have ended up in New Zealand landfills. The Appeal helps to keep our landfills free of an array of hazardous toxic substances that could seep out into the environment contaminating land, water and air.
The positive environmental impacts go further. Since our launch 4 years ago we have refurbished over 700,000 mobile phone handsets which have then been sold into other markets. These refurbished and reused handsets can help change lives. The provision of low cost mobiles in emerging markets is often the only way that people can access telecommunications for the first time, and thus benefit from all the services, like financial, health and information services.
Finally the sale of these handsets helps Kiwi kids. To date over two million dollars has been donated to The Starship Foundation from the sale of old mobile phones. This money is used to help fund the Starship National Air Ambulance Service. This essential service
Ambulance Service. This essential service flies top medical experts to life threatening emergencies anywhere in New Zealand and is on call 24/7, 365 days per year.
That’s three good reasons to search in your cupboards, sideboards, drawers for your old mobiles and donate them to the Starship Mobile Phone Appeal. Ask friends & family if they too have any unwanted mobiles they’d also like to donate. So start collecting to drop them into the collection box provided here. It’s such a small act that can do so much good.