All I want for Christmas...is your old mobile phone

For those lucky New Zealanders who receive a new mobile phone this Christmas, the Starship Foundation is encouraging them to then donate their old mobile phone to help the kids at Starship Children’s Hospital.

The Starship Mobile Phone Appeal has been a huge success for the Starship Foundation which partners with recycling company Folamh to refurbish and on-sell the old phones to developing economies around the world.

Since the appeal launched in February 2009, donated phones from around New Zealand have helped raise more than $1 million for the national children’s hospital. More than 400,000 phones have been donated in that time.

The money raised from the Starship Mobile Phone Appeal is used to help fund the Starship National Air Ambulance Service. The Foundation is committed to providing $1.5 million annually to keep this national service flying critically ill and injured children to Starship from across the country for urgent medical care.

“Please put your old mobile phone in a freepost envelope and send it to the Starship Mobile Phone Appeal – it’s an easy way to help the kids this Christmas and beyond,” says Starship Foundation CEO Brad Clark. “Not only can you help young patients all over the country, but you can help the environment too.”

Donated phones are graded and sorted before being sent to places such as Hong Kong, China or Eastern Europe where they are checked, reprogrammed, repackaged and sold. Phones beyond repair are recycled through the correct environmental channels.

The public can donate phones using freepost envelopes which can be found at ASB Bank, Barfoot & Thompson, The Warehouse and Warehouse Stationery branches. Envelopes and collection boxes are also at Telecom, Vodafone and 2degrees stores and envelopes are also regularly inserted into national newspapers and magazines. Alternatively, phones can be put in any envelope and posted to Starship Mobile Phone Recycling Appeal, Private Bag 208005, Highbrook, Manukau 2161, FreePost: 223107

More information about the Starship Mobile Phone Appeal is available at www.starship.org.nz/phone.