Embargoed until 00:01 Thursday 26th May 2022
Connecting the disconnected while reducing e-waste: Community Calling rings in 10,000 smartphones for people who need them Community Calling, the pioneering initiative by Virgin Media O2 and environmental charity Hubbub to tackle digital exclusion and e-waste, has rehomed more than 10,000 smartphones with people who need them across the country. The programme was launched in May 2020 to help vulnerable people get online to access essential services, such as healthcare appointments, to apply for jobs and keep in touch with their loved ones during the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as provide a sustainable way for people and businesses to recycle old devices, preventing them from ending up in landfill as e-waste. Since then, Community Calling has gone from strength to strength, rehoming thousands of second-hand smartphones with digitally isolated people across the country, along with free texts, calls and mobile data from the National Databank - set up by Virgin Media O2 and digital inclusion charity, Good Things Foundation. By finding a new home for unused smartphones that would otherwise have ended up in landfill, Community Calling has helped save more than 535 tonnes of CO2e. It is estimated an average of four phones are sitting unused for every one phone in use in the UK. While recycling is important, many of these phones sitting in our homes or those that have been discarded are highly functional and could be reused, thereby extending their life and benefiting people who need a device. Community Calling is seeking to address this challenge by boosting smartphone reuse and tackling digital exclusion.
Emily Watson from Hubbub, said: “Community Calling is changing people’s lives across the country. We’ve supported young people and older people, survivors of domestic abuse, asylum seekers and those facing homelessness. “Beyond this amazing social impact, by redistributing 10,000 second-hand phones we’ve