Get involved! Turn your old computer or mobile phone into a stretch of forest
Scarcely 1-2% of mobile phones are currently recycled or reused, and for IT equipment it’s only 48%. On behalf of companies that hand in their electronic waste, Out of Use donates a piece of land to Natuurpunt, where trees are planted. Participating businesses and organisations receive a certificate and can even go and plant the trees themselves.
For every PC, laptop or server, Natuurpunt buys 2 m² of forest land to plant trees. But even 4 smartphones/mobile phones, tablets or hard drives are enough for 1 m² of newly planted forest land in Flanders.
You’ll find more details in the information document.
So far more than 120 businesses and organisations have already taken part, and more than 14 000 m2 of woodland has been planted. We hope to create many more new woodlands where endangered species such as the great spotted woodpecker, squirrels and pine marten can flourish. But to do that we really need your help!
So let us have your details and plant some trees with your company!
A day without a smartphone has become unthinkable for many teenagers. That's exactly why we organised a mobile phone-free day with the management and the student council of the Royal Athenaeum Zottegem. The intention was to make students aware of the risk of dependence, and the dangers of cyber-bullying. Old mobiles were collected for the Out of Use and Natuurpunt’s ‘Recycleren voor Natuurpunt’ campaign to encourage everyone to adopt environmentally friendly recycling behaviour. In exchange for the mobiles new young trees were planted during Natuurpunt’s tree planting day. Our objective was achieved and we’ll certainly repeat such campaigns in the future.
The non-profit organisation Industrie Mechelen Noord wants to encourage its members to handle their waste with greater awareness. In many cases the residual flows that a company regards as waste can still be put to good use. In addition to pooling group purchases for waste, energy and others, as Quares Park Manager we are looking at how we can go a step further. Sustainability and the green aspect are two core values that the non-profit organisation feels strongly about. That is how we ended up at Out of Use. More than 20 companies signed up, and Out of Use went to all these companies in two days to collect their old electrolytes. This yielded a good result of 20 new trees for Natuurpunt. The advantage of this kind of action is that one just gets everything ready and doesn't have to move the material yourself. We as a non-profit organisation will be organising similar actions in the future!
