Give your gizmos a new lease of life

Orkney Islands Council is supporting a national campaign aimed at giving old mobile phones and gadgets a new lease of life.

The Council is setting out pop up boxes in key public buildings for donation of unwanted  - but still working - small electrical items such as mobile phones, tablets, chargers and cables, earphones, set top boxes, hair dryers and straighteners, blenders, and handheld games.

It’s all part of Zero Waste Scotland’s ‘Big Electric Amnesty’ being held during Pass It On Week (11 - 19 March) - Scotland’s annual re-use event.

According to Zero Waste Scotland, over a third of Scots have smartphones they are no longer using.

Jayne Venables, the Council’s Waste Strategy Officer said: “Mobile phones are one of the least ‘passed-on’ types of item, usually hoarded well past their useful lifespan, or put into the bin – which is shame as not only do they contain recyclable metals, but they could be used by someone if donated rather than hoarded.

“ZeroWaste Scotland will be collecting electrical items donated by folk in Orkney and shipping them back to the mainland for recycling or reuse. Laptops and computers will be securely wiped of personal data, but phones should have their SIM card removed and be restored to factory settings before leaving in the collection boxes.

To find out more about ‘Pass It On Week’, visit the Pass it on Week website.

Big Electric Amnesty box locations include:

• Glaitness Primary School.
• Stromness Academy.
• Kirkwall Grammar School.
• Orkney Islands Council Customer services in Kirkwall (School Place) and in Stromness (Warehouse Buildings).
• Orkney Library and Archive in Kirkwall.

What can be passed on?

The Big Electric Amnesty is for working small electrical and electronic items. Please do not pass on broken items. The types of items that you can pass on include computers, laptops, printers, tablets, phones, small household electricals like hairdryers and hair straighteners, kitchen appliances like blenders, mixers and juicers, games consoles, set top boxes and any other small household electrical items.

Is data securely wiped from laptops and computers?

Yes – you can read CCL’s data policy here - http://www.cclnorth.com/secure-data-destruction.html

And Re-Tek’s policy here - http://www.re-tek.co.uk/data-security/cesg-approved-data-wiping/

Is it safe to pass mobile phones on?

Those wishing to pass on phones should ensure they have reset the phone to factory settings – all phones are different but should have an ‘erase all data’ or ‘restore to factory settings’ option. You should do this, and then remove the SIM card before passing on phones. Don’t pass the SIM cards on – if you’re not going to put them in another phone then cut them up.