SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
When the Mildred Hall School vegetable and flower gardens bloomed this past summer, it wasn't uncommon to see the occasional passersby pause to shoot a photo of the lush planter boxes with their cell phones.

Ryan Nichols, vice-principal at Mildred Hall School, is hoping his students can collect more cell phones than any other school in the territory as part of a national recycling competition. If successful, the school will win $500 to help with the student gardening program. - James Goldie/NNSL photo

Now cell phones could be used to help fund next year's garden thanks to a nation-wide program the school is participating in.

The Recycle My Cell Student Challenge encourages young people across Canada to collect old cellphones and drop them off at their school to be recycled. The school in each province or territory that gathers the most phones (based on population) wins $500 to go towards "green programs" at their school.

"We have a garden out front that we're trying to raise money for, so all proceeds if we do happen to win (will go) towards our garden," said vice-principal Ryan Nichols.

This is the school's first year participating in the program. Messages have been sent out to students and family through the school's newsletter, social media accounts and signage.

Not everyone realizes old phones can be recycled, so the program is a way to make children more aware, said Nichols.

"Everywhere (students) go they see recycle boxes for paper and things like that, but any way we can educate them on what we can recycle, we try to do so," he added.

Marc Choma, senior director of communications for the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association, which administers the Recycle My Cell competition, said the student challenge is particularly helpful in getting his organization's message out.

"Students and young people always seem to be the early adopters, whether it's new technology or anything like that," said Choma. "They're very keen on environmental causes and they're very aware. So we thought if we could instil a kind of life-long love of the environment and the ways that people can do their part, no matter how small, that's going to stay with them for their lifetime."

According to Choma, more than 28 million Canadians are cell phone users, which means there are a lot of old phones lying around homes or forgotten in junk drawers.

"We don't know how many are left in people's drawers, but we do like to get all of those back so there's no chance that they're going to be, for future generations, harming the environment."

Recycle My Cell has 3,500 drop-off spots for phones that are available year-round throughout Canada, including four in Yellowknife. Once collected, recycled phones are brought to a registered processor where they are sorted and tested. Phones that still work are refurbished and given a new life, while those that cannot be repaired and reused are broken down into their basic parts for recycling.

"We're in 2015 now and there's absolutely no reason why a cell phone should ever end up in a landfill," said Choma. "There can be hazardous materials in them, but also there's a lot of plastic, there's glass, there's chemicals, there's minerals, there's minerals that can be harvested from that."

The student challenge in Yellowknife and other NWT communities is being co-ordinated with help from Ecology North and runs until Nov. 18.

"It's a great opportunity for kids to learn," said Dawn Tremblay, project officer at Ecology North. "All products have an end life but that end life needs to be done responsibly."

Tremblay said Mildred Hall and N.J. Macpherson schools are currently the only two Yellowknife schools participating in the program, but she is hopeful more will join.

"It's not too late," she said. "(Schools) might not get their package with their pretty box to collect things until mid-way through the collection period, but that doesn't stop anyone from joining."

Although the program's target participants are students, at Mildred Hall Nichols said members of the public who want to drop off their used phones are welcome to stop by.

"If you enjoy looking at our garden when you walk by our school, by all means drop by here and donate any old cellphones you might have lying around the house," he said.

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