Non profit
Italy: Mobile phones turned into funds for development
Turning rubbish back into money seems like fundraising's new frontier. In Italy you can now get rid of your old mobile phones without feeling guilty: being green and good at the same time
di Staff
How many unused phones are there in our houses? The average life of a mobile phone is two years, once we are done with them we usually stick them in a drawer and forget about them especially as no one seems to know how to dispose of them. An innovative fundraising campaign promoted by Magis, an Italian development foundation, has come up with a way to put our mobile waste to good use.
A collecting ?machine? made up of 150 different organisations across Italy has collected thousands of mobile phones since last April, when the campaign began. The money raised from recycling the phones will go towards development projects in Africa, like a project that will create solar kitchens in Chad, or one that will build a hospital in Kenya.
But how does recycling an old phone raise money? An English company, CMR, is responsible for working that one out. Non usable parts are separated from ones that still work, the first are disposed of in an environmentally friendly way while the latter are repaired and where possible sold on the second hand market.
In either case CMR gives Magis a donation for each phone they receive and Magis donates the entire sum to the development projects in Africa.
More info
www.magisitalia.org
