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Old mobile phones were collected for the ‘RECYCLEREN VOOR NATUURPUNT’ campaign

A day without a smartphone has become unthinkable for many teenagers. That's why the management and student council of the Royal Athenaeum Zottegem organised a mobile phone-free day on 5 February 2016. We wanted to make students aware of the risk of dependence, and the dangers of cyber-bullying. Old mobiles were collected for the ‘Recycleren voor Natuurpunt’ campaign to encourage everyone to adopt environmentally friendly recycling behaviour. In exchange for the mobiles new young trees will shortly be planted during Natuurpunt’s national tree planting day on 27 November 2016.

“Our campaign was part of the Flemish anti-bullying week, which in our our school mainly focused on cyber-bullying,” explains Maarten Haesebeyt of the student council. “Together the school management and the the student council decided to end the week in a light-hearted way with a ‘KAZ Disconnected’ day. The aim was to make students aware of their frequent mobile phone use and get them to chat among themselves more. We organised activities so they could see how earlier generations spent their time at school.”

Mobile phone throw
Everyone who brought in an old mobile phone could take part in the mobile phone throw, a competition to see who could throw it the furthest. The winner received a 10-trip card for the public swimming pool. In total, the school collected 80 old mobile phones for the ‘Recycleren voor Natuurpunt’ campaign. The mobiles were delivered to Out of Use and in exchange 20 new trees will be planted in areas with little woodland in Flanders.

Maarten Haesebeyt: “This awareness campaign reached a wide target group of students and their parents. Afterwards, we had a lot of feedback from students who admitted that it was difficult not to have a mobile phone or the internet to hand. So we definitely achieved our objective and we’ll certainly repeat such campaigns in the future. On 27 November 2016 we’re going to plant our trees during Natuurpunt’s national tree planting day.”

KA Zottegem Out of Use