Sainsbury's mobile phone recycling scheme to benefit NSPCC and Crisis
Howard Lake | 29 December 2003 | News
Sainsbury’s new mobile phone recycling scheme will enable its customers to recycle their unwanted handsets and benefit two charities at the same time.
According to Fonebak, which manages the scheme for Sainsbury’s, each reusable phone is worth £5 and each recyclable phone is worth 25p. With an estimated one million mobile phones being given as Christmas presents this year, many of them replacing existing sets, there is clearly considerable potential income for the two beneficiary charities.
Mary Marsh, NSPCC Chief Executive, said: “It’s staggering to think of the number of old mobile phones sitting around in homes and offices that could be converted into donations worth millions of pounds. Any money raised for the NSPCC will go towards our FULL STOP Campaign to end cruelty to children.”
Advertisement
Sainsbury’s is encouraging its customers to place their old mobile phones in the freepost envelope provided in Sainsbury’s 506 stores, tick the charity they would like to benefit (either NSPCC or Crisis) and then post it.
James McKechnie, Sainsbury’s Recycling Manager, believes the scheme could generate as much as £5 million for the charities. He said: “We want to invite everybody who has an old mobile phone to nip down to their local store and drop it off to help us reach that five million pound donation.”
Created by Shields Environmental, Fonebak is a mobile phone recycling scheme that aims to deal with the growing number of unwanted mobile phones.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.