Mobile phone users will now be able to recycle their old mobile phones and accessories at more than 450 First National branches around the country.
The First National Real Estate network today announced that customers will be able to drop off their old mobile phones, batteries, accessories and chargers at their nearest First National branch. As an extension to its energy efficiency and sustainability drive, First National has partnered with MobileMuster, the official recycling program of the mobile phone industry to support its Old phones, more trees campaign.
‘Old phones, more trees’ is a joint initiative between MobileMuster and Landcare Australia, to collect more than 250,000 handsets and plant up to 25,000 seedlings to regenerate Australia’s coastline between now and 30 September.
“First National is calling on our 450 plus members and their local communities to recycle their old mobile phones and accessories before the end of September to help plant more trees along our coastline,” First National Real Estate CEO, Mr Ray Ellis, said.
“If each of our offices recycled their old mobiles First National together could recycle as many as 7,500 mobile phones a year from our staff alone. With 70 per cent of Australians having at least one old mobile sitting in a cupboard at home, we could potentially help recycle millions of phones and help reduce this country’s carbon footprint.”
Mr Ellis said as leaders in real estate, First National also wanted to take the lead on matters affecting communities in which its members live and work.
“Our members pride themselves on giving back to their communities and by helping to collect mobile phones for recycling so that more trees can be planted is just another way for them to do that.
“As an industry that is so reliant on both mobile phones and cars, we felt we should do our part to help reduce our carbon footprint,” Mr Ellis said.
According to Rose Read, MobileMuster Manager, Recycling, Australians have about 19 million old and unused mobile phones sitting at home.
“The greenhouse gases that could be avoided if Australians recycled all their old, unused phones would be the same as planting 100,000 trees or taking more than 6,000 cars off the road,” Ms Read said.
If all the unused or broken mobile phones hidden in desks and drawers across Australia were handed in, including those of First National’s own staff, they could be recycled to produce 185,000 plastic fence posts, enough to build a fence from Melbourne to Sydney.
Since MobileMuster began in 1999 it has collected 806 tonnes of old mobile phones, batteries and accessories, recycling over 90 per cent of the materials in them and keeping them out of landfill.
To find your nearest First National / MobileMuster collection point for mobile phone recycling go to www.mobilemuster.com.au or call 1300 730 070.
