Skip to content

Flipswap takes phones, plants trees

Students at local schools have donated more than 1,000 old cellphones to the Flipswap Program — resulting in 1,000 trees being planted.

Staff Writer

Students at local schools have donated more than 1,000 old cellphones to the Flipswap Program — resulting in 1,000 trees being planted.

The purpose of the Flipswap Program in local schools is to collect old cellphones from students, teachers and family members.Upon receiving the cellphones, Play N Trade management sends all turned in phones to a partnered company called Flipswap. Our friends at Flipswap will then take the newer models, which charge still, refurbish them and take them to Third World countries to be used there.

All other phones will be broken down to dispose of all dangerous metals in a safe and green way. Remaining pieces are recycled, reused by the refurbishing department.

The best part — every single cellphone brought into Play N Trade by people in our community will be reused and recycled, and for every phone, a tree will be planted by Flipswap.

Where else can cellphones become trees?

Locally owned and operated, Play N Trade is hosting the Flipswap program on an ongoing basis, and it is open to everyone in our community.

Stores in Campbell River and Duncan will be participating as well.

More recent models of cellphones may be worth a store credit for the customer.

Since March, Play N Trade has been running this pilot project in the Comox Valley, and the participation from our schools made it successful.

A very special mention goes to Aspen Park Elementary, Miracle Beach Elementary, Arden Elementary, Royston Elementary and École Robb Road Elementary.

These participating schools, along with a few other schools in the Valley, donated more than 1,000 cellphones in total, meaning at least 1,000 trees will be planted and 1,000 cellphones will not be in our landfill.

Upon starting the Flipswap program, students were encouraged to participate, not only because they are being environmentally responsible, but also because Play N Trade was offering prizes for all participants.

Some of the smaller prizes were T-shirts, hats, lanyards and personal in-store party credits for the players' club for up to six kids.

The grand prize was the free giveaway of two XBOX 360 four-gig consoles with a full connect system. Grand prize winners were Ryan, and sisters Dahlia and Amelia.

The Comox Valley Play N Trade location is at 2-795 Ryan Rd.

in Courtenay. The phone number is 250-871-7529

— Play N Trade