Company Turns Your Old Cell Phone Into New Trees-

Plant My Phone is a new company program intended to reduce the ever-increasing number of old cell phones that are carelessly tossed in landfills. Once its time to update your cell phone or service, pick up one of their postage-paid self-mailer bags and send in your old, unwanted cell phone for absolutely no charge. The free postage-paid plastic bags are available in cities like Chicago, IL; San Fransisco, CA; Medford, MA; Corvallis, OR; and New Orleans, LA. If you do not have access these cities, you are able to print a free shipping label from their website, or request a free self-mailer bag sent straight to you. According to their website, mailing in an average two-year old phone will result in the planting of fifteen trees. A first generation Apple iPhone in good condition allows the planting of 79 trees, and a Nokia80 equals about 30 – depending on the condition. There is a phone-to-trees conversion table available their site that shows specific phones and their value. The mailed phones are recycled, and their materials are sold to fund tree planting. The company maintains that cell phone recycling is important because cell phones contain heavy metals which are toxic to the environment, and, “of the 140 million old cellphones each year, only 10% get recycled.” The types of trees planted are: Acacia, Banana, Cedar, Cocoa, Coffee, Eucalyptus, Laurel, Leucaena, Mahogany, Oak, Orange, and Teak. Their trees are planted in twelve countries: Belize, Burundi, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Haiti, Honduras, India, Nicaragua, Panama, Philippines, Senegal, Zambia, and India. PlantMyPhone has a goal of planting seven billion trees. They are an official partner of the United Nations Environment Programme’s “Plant for the Planet: Billion Tree Campaign”.