How To Recycle Your Phone & Help Save Lives: HopePhones.org [Video]
Do you have an old mobile phone sitting in a drawer that you are not using anymore? What do you do with it? In the spirit of Earth Day today, check out our interview above with Josh Nesbit, co-founder of HopePhones.org and FrontlineSMS: Medic. Learn how you can recycle your phone and help save lives at the same time. Happy Earth Day!
(For our previous interview about FrontlineSMS: Medic, please see: How Mobile Saves Lives in Africa | Interview with Josh Nesbit.)
The Story of HopePhones.org
Katrina: Here I am with Josh, co-founder of FrontlineSMS: Medic. Thanks for joining. Can you tell us, why did you start HopePhones.org?
Josh: It just so happened to be the case that we were discarding half a million phones every single day in the United States. Each of those phones is worth between $15 and $50. So, it was essentially trapped funding that people were throwing into their drawers and into the trash can. We launched HopePhones to give people a chance to give their old phone a new life on the frontline of global health.
Essentially we’ll take your old phone, pay for the shipping, recycle it here in the United States – clearly a green process, and take the funding, 100% of it, and use the proceeds to buy new, appropriate phones that can be used by community health workers. So that’s the cycle. We’re basically trying to twin environmentalism with humanitarianism.
It’s really a win-win. We can recycle properly here in the United States – and we’re not very good about it. About 98% of our phones are being put in the trash or stored in a drawer. We all know that it’s green to recycle your phone. But what if it’s tax-deductible, and what if it delivers this social impact on the other side?
Katrina: And how many phones have you collected so far to-date?
Josh: We’ve collected about 4,000 phones. And 4,000 phones is the proof of concept.
Recycle your phone at: HopePhones.org.
Learn more about FrontlineSMS: Medic. Follow them on Twitter at @smsmedic or @hopephones.
Thank you Josh for time to meet for this interview.
Josh Nesbit | Co-Founder, FrontlineSMS Medic / HopePhones
About: FrontlineSMS Medic advances healthcare networks in under-served communities using innovative, appropriate mobile technologies. HopePhones is a campaign of FrontlineSMS Medic that enables people to recycle old mobile phones to support the work of FrontlineSMS Medic.Website: www.medic.frontlinesms.com
(Photos via Creative Commons Flickr thanks to: Ken Banks, kiwanja.net, whiteafrican, and a.drian.)
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