A giant mobile phone has landed in Portsmouth

In January this year, the charity, Share (Portsmouth), that runs Repair Café Portsmouth ran the city’s first e-waste amnesty week, which saw residents across the city dropping their working, but unwanted electrical items to charity shops. These items could then be sold by the charities to support their work, but importantly it also kept the items going for longer, which is at the heart of Repair Café Portsmouth’s message.

Clare Seek, founder of Share (Portsmouth) said, “Sometimes it’s useful to have something out of the ordinary to stop us in our tracks and help us think about things. The giant mobile phone was designed by students in Manchester and is over 2 metres tall. It’s also interactive, and you can learn facts about the impact our phones have on the planet’s resources and each other, as well as checking how great you’re looking in the giant screen!

“Every week we have people asking us about how they can fix things to save money, and where to find information on donating or selling unused tech. The phone will be touring six sites in the city, so if you have a chance, take a look at it, or check out our website for a map of places across the city for repairing, donating, selling or recycling unwanted electrical items.”

In March this year, the latest Global E-Waste Monitor report provided some stark facts around the fastest growing waste stream on the planet.

Picture a lorry. One of those big 40-tonne ones you often see on the motorway. Imagine it packed with e-waste: discarded phones, washing machines, toasters and other devices...Now imagine a queue of one and a half million of these lorries, bumper to bumper and full to the brim: a line of e-waste long enough to stretch around the entire planet. This is how much e-waste we produce globally every year, according to the report: 62 million tonnes and rising fast.

And this problem is closer to home than many people realise. The UK is still the world's second biggest producer of e-waste per person.

Having started its tour at the University of Portsmouth’s Student Union for their Green Week, it is currently in the University Library and then heading to a Unite Student block, before visiting Central Library from 13th May, Southsea Library from 20th May and it will end in Cascades Shopping Centre from 28th May.