Your Old Mobile Phone Can Make a Difference

by Lane Lubell, 8th Grade

ALL: If a child drops his books, the unwritten laws of integrity say that one should help him by picking-up the books. In other words, the right thing to do is to help clean-up the mess.

As you read this, thousands of barrels of oil are leaking into the Gulf of Mexico, closing in on the Mississippi River Delta. Considered part of the Atlantic Ocean, this large body of water is being destroyed.

Whilst cleaning up the mess isn’t as easy as picking up a book, we can do things to protect what remains, and prevent further destruction.

One way to do this is to recycle. Another is to round-up other nasty chemicals, for example, mercury (Hg), which can ultimately ruin the oceans’ ecosystem. This round-up will ward-off improper disposal of these nasty chemicals into the environment.


Here at CCS, being environmentally friendly is something that is taken very seriously.

The support and success of the Acts of Green campaign, which ran in conjunction with Earth Day, not only realized over 800 Acts of Green within the school, but it also encouraged us to believe we should participate in a completion called March to a Million.


The basis of the competition is to collect as many old cell phones as possible. The winning school will receive $5000 towards a party, and a performance by the famed band, Hey Monday! (Sorry, girls. I guess Justin Beiber just isn’t as eco-friendly, or maybe his people just don’t have connections with the sponsor.)


Cell phone collection and recycling is very important. In an average cell phone, there are precious metals like gold (Au), silver (Ag), and even platinum (Pt). In addition to the precious metals, there are also multiple ounces of mercury (Hg), which is a metal in a liquid state. When thrown into a landfill, cell phones leak mercury, which can seep into the groundwater and contaminate our oceans. In fact when mercury meets the ocean, it can be more toxic than the petroleum (CH4) that is spewing into the Gulf of Mexico!

So what does this mean to you right now? Well, it means you have the opportunity to make a difference by gathering old cell phones from your homes, from your coworkers, from your family members and bringing them to the collection boxes at school. Mobile phones can be donated through the end of the month, and will be turned over to the March to a Million campaign, which will coordinate the proper disposal of these phones.
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