Old non-working phones are usually discarded or abandoned yet for Globe Telecom, even if these phones have outgrown their usefulness, they can still do something wonderful – build classrooms for the children of Aklan.
Right now, Aklan needs hundreds of classrooms to accommodate its student population which was displaced after schools were destroyed or damaged by Typhoon Haiyan almost a year ago. Globe, a development partner for Aklan, committed to put up at least 40 school buildings in the province.
Project 1 Phone is a big and important campaign created by Globe to hit two birds at the same time. Its first goal is to educate Filipinos about the importance of proper disposal of electronic waste or e-waste and secondly, to contribute to the special cause of classroom building by donating recycling proceeds to the Aklan initiative.
"We can give our old phones one last wonderful by donating them to Project 1 Phone and be instrumental in providing our schoolchildren a decent place to study. At the same time, we can help save the environment by freeing it of toxins which are emitted by the wrong use of e-waste disposal," said Yoly Crisanto, Senior Vice President, Globe Corporate Communications.
Globe is set to build schools in two phases with the help of Habitat for Humanity and Ayala Foundation. The first phase involves the construction of five "Noah's Ark"-type classrooms that double as evacuation structures during calamities as they are equipped with three toilet and bath facilities and a kitchen. One such structure will be built in each of the seven identified municipalities in Aklan, namely: Libacao, Madalag, Banga, Batan, Altavas, Balete, New Washington. The second phase will be comprised of more than 30 regular but "built back better" classrooms.
Donation bins for non-working phones and tablets, mobile phone batteries, and chargers are available at all participating Globe Stores in various parts of the country (for the complete list, please visit the Globe Telecom website www.globe.com.ph/project1phone).
All devices and accessories that Globe will gather shall be turned over to TES-AMM, a leading electronics waste recycler which will take responsibility for at end-of-life products to ensure that they are managed responsibly. TES-AMM will, likewise, work on recovering precious metals and plastics from the recycled gadgets, proceeds of which will go to classroom construction.
E-waste is not limited to mobile gadgets but includes all obsolete and unwanted electronic and electrical devices which are usually dumped in the trash and crushed by garbage incinerators, thereby, causing harmful metals such as lead, mercury, cadmium, and beryllium to pollute the air, land, and water.
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