Clark Gardens Botanical Park in Texas in the United States recently came up with a novel way to try to entice people into cell phone recycling. Every time someone donates an old cellular phone, they will be given a tree sapling. The idea, which was used for a limited time only at a festival, which was held over the weekend, saw forty-eight old cell phones being donated for recycling, with tree saplings of such species as Bur Oak, Chinkapin Oak, Green Ash and Shumard Oak (all Texas natives) given to those that participated. There are still a few tree saplings left and the program will continue for a brief period until they are all gone.
“Clark Gardens is dedicated to educating the public in ways to improve our environment,” says Clark Gardens Botanical Park director Carol Clark Montgomery. “Once we became aware of the seriousness of the incorrect disposal of cell phones, we wanted to not only offer a simple way to dispose of cell phones, but to also offer an incentive to correctly dispose of them.” Montgomery says that Clark Gardens Botanical Park has formed a partnership with the recycling program known as Phoneraiser.com to help dispose of all the old cell phones donated. “The gardens will receive a cash donation from Phoneraiser.com for each phone recycled,” she says. “The funds raised will be put back into the gardens’ educational programs. Clark Gardens is a 501c3 offering free educational programs to area wide school aged children.”