You can use your old smartphone to help save the Amazon rainforest

Whenever you throw out an old smartphone, you’re indirectly contributing to a massive environmental issue relating to the improper disposal of consumer electronics, but it doesn’t have to be that way. What if you could not only stop adding to the endless stream of electronic waste, but help save the Amazon rainforest in the process. That’s what a charity by the name of Rainforest Connection wants to help you do, and all you need to do is send it your old smartphone.

If we ever think about the environmental impact of our upgrade addiction, it’s usually to berate ourselves for the damage it does. But there is an option for your old mobile that will not only reduce waste, but actively help to preserve some of the most threatened habitats in the world. In the last 50 years, 17% of the Amazon rainforest has been destroyed – partly by climate change, but much of it through illegal logging to develop farmland. This is a terrible loss by itself, but it also deprives indigenous tribes of their homes and drives rare species of plants and animals to extinction. There are even wider-reaching effects too: because forests act as a carbon sink, the more we lose, the more CO2 is released into the atmosphere and the greater the potential for global warming. But there is a way to protect the rainforests, and your old phone could be part of it, thanks to the charity Rainforest Connection. We spoke to CEO Topher White about how your discarded handset could help to save the world.