Win-win situations are rare, but there is one scheme that helps schools in the UK and simultaneously provides vital support to children in developing countries.
The idea, like all great ones, is simple: schools buy low-cost recycled ink cartridges for their laser and inkjet printers, recycle their used ones, and the money raised goes towards buying basic school equipment urgently needed among the most disadvantaged children in the world.
The innovative scheme is the brainchild of ActionAid Recycling, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary by attending this year’s Education Show.
It is the licensed trading arm of the charity ActionAid. Buying six HP cartridges from the charity could buy two desks for four Malawian school children. Recycling three HP inkjet cartridges could help buy educational materials for five children in an Access centre in Ethiopia. It also offers mobile phone recycling: two can feed to a Bangladeshi street child for a day.
All this fundraising power is on the back of some woeful facts about our throwaway society: in the UK, more than two million printer cartridges are thrown in the bin and 15 million mobile phones are discarded each year.
Graham Good, ActionAid Recycling’s operations manager says: “Those who benefit don’t need the latest laptop or newest sports equipment. They just want the opportunity to go to school, to read and write and help alleviate the problems their family live with.”
ActionAid Recycling
Stand C341
