Bell Mobility is calling on all cell phone users to donate any old phones that they are no longer using.
On Wednesday, the wireless provider launched its Recycle, Reuse and Redial program where any old phone, regardless of brand, make or carrier, can be dropped off by any citizen or business to all Bell World or Escape Bell stores. The program is already in full swing in Ontario and Quebec and is expanding into British Columbia and Alberta. All the proceeds garnered by the program will be donated and put back in to support its endeavor, the company said.
Approximately 60 percent of the unwanted phones will be recycled and the remaining 40 percent will be donated and reused. Environment Canada has projected that by 2005, mobile phones will represent approximately 0.3 percent of disposed IT and telecom equipment.
Bell Mobility will donate the phones given to the program to women’s shelters and charitable organizations across the four above-mentioned provinces. Don Blair, a spokesperson for the carrier in Toronto, said that to date 90 shelters across Ontario and Quebec have already received 900 phones.
“The main reason (for the program) was to provide Canadian wireless users with a disposal method for unwanted wireless phones (and) we’re working with a number of Canadian charitable organizations as well,” Blair said.
In Ontario, the Women’s Habitat of Etobicoke and the Kingston Interval House have been recipients of the program for the past six months. As part of its support, Bell Mobility provides women at the shelter with a free phone and unlimited airtime. In the case of charitable organizations, Blair said it would pay a subsidized rate plan but the phone itself is still free.
The program will run indefinitely and Bell plans to pursue partnerships with other community organizations and charities to expand the program in the future.
The company is online at www.bell.ca.