After Haiyan | A Journey to Wonderful.

When Supertyphoon Haiyan (local name Typhoon Yolanda) unleashed its fury a year ago, it left a trail of unimaginable devastation to lives and properties. One of the strongest tropical cyclones ever recorded, Haiyan left 6,300 casualties in the Philippines alone. Yet, despite the bleak scenario, hope continued to exist as public and private sectors as well as the international community joined hands to bring the country back on its feet. Globe Telecom was among the first companies to respond to the call for help.

“Globe recognizes how every little effort counts in rebuilding the nation, thus, it went out of its way to rally the employees, customers, partners, and other stakeholders to raise funds for the construction of homes and school buildings and for the creation of livelihood opportunities in areas hardly hit by the disaster. Project Wonderful was born out of this desire to aid in nation building. Ten months since it was launched, we now see the fruits of our efforts but we are not stopping until we fulfill all our commitments,” said Yoly Crisanto, Senior Vice President, Globe Corporate Communications.

Newly-constructed homes in Gawad Kalinga, New Washington, Aklan.

At present, Globe together with Gawad Kalinga, has completed a total of 162 homes in Brgy. Tambulilid, Ormoc, Leyte and Brgy. Fatima, New Washington, Aklan, as well as in Brgy. Tugas, Madridejos, Bantayan Island, Cebu via sponsorship of SingTel. An additional 28 houses are scheduled for construction in Libacao, Aklan early January for a total of 190 units. Globe is also set to give out 600 shelter kits to Libacao before yearend aside from the 940 shelter kits distributed in Madalag, Aklan earlier.

Shelter kits.

In addition, Globe also became a Development Sponsor for Aklan under the Office of the Presidential Assistant for Rehabilitation and Recovery (OPARR) where it spearheads initiatives in housing, education, livelihood, and health to help seven of the hardest hit municipalities: Libacao, Madalag, Banga, Batan, Altavas, Balete, and New Washington.

School construction site.

Globe not only provides houses for Aklan but is also working on building schools for its seven areas of concentration. With the help of Habitat for Humanity and Ayala Foundation, the company is building in two phases. The first phase involves the construction of “Noah’s Ark”-type classrooms that double as evacuation structures during calamities as they are equipped with three toilet and bath facilities each as well as a kitchen. The second phase is comprised of more than 30 regular but “built back better” classrooms to be funded from proceeds of the company’s enterprise-wide waste management program, as well as from parent-company Ayala Corporation.

To top it off, Globe also launched Project 1 Phone to educate Filipinos on the importance of proper disposal of electronic waster or e-waste and to contribute to the building of classrooms in Aklan. Under this project, everyone can support the efforts in Aklan by donating their old, non-working mobile phones for recycling at participating Globe Stores. Proceeds of the program will be used as additional funding for the schools. Cash donations of 5, 20, 50, 100, 500 denominations may also be sent directly to Habitat for Humanity by texting DONATE HABITAT and send to 4438.

Globe Project 1 Phone | Reduce, Recover, Recycle.

I was skimming through my Facebook photos when I stumbled upon this - a not-so-stolen shot of me with my old gadgets. This was sometime in 2010, when the Nokia E63 was hip and I still had curly hair. Haha!

I still have that phone stashed somewhere around here, but I'm parting ways with it pretty soon.  I'm donating this baby - together with my other old phones - to Globe's Project 1 Phone campaign.

Throwback to 2010!

Together with global electronic waste recycling specialist TES-AMM, Globe aims to promote sustainability and create awareness on proper disposal of old and obsolete electronic items through this Project 1 Phone campaign.

Formed in 2005, TES-AMM combines state-or-the-art technology with in-depth knowledge of environment and waste management techniques to provide reuse solutions and recovery of precious metals from end-of-life electronics such as computers, cell phones, peripherals, television sets, among others. It is headquartered in Singapore with facilities in other parts of Asia, Oceania, Americas, Europe, Middle East, and Africa.

Globe is currently encouraging everyone to participate in Project 1 Phone by donating their unusable mobile phones and portable devices via donation bins available at all participating Globe Stores in various parts of the country (for the complete list, please visit the Globe Telecom website www.globe.com.ph/project1phone ).

Sample of the recycling process by TES-AMM.

All collected units and accessories shall be turned over to TES-AMM Philippines for proper recycling and recovery. No phones or accessories collected will be refurbished for resale or cannibalized for usable parts.

Old cellphones and their batteries have toxic components such as arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury as well as plastic parts which usually have brominated flame retardant which are all toxic when released to the environment. If thrown improperly, these can pollute the environment and cause harmful effects to one’s health.

Thus, aside from ensuring that e-wastes are not unnecessarily dumped into landfills, TES-AMM also provides the facility to recover precious metals and plastics for re-manufacture, proceeds of which will go to classroom construction in Aklan where Globe is a development sponsor.

Globe Project 1 Phone | A Call for Good.

How many mobile phones have you owned in the past five years? One? Two? Maybe even five or more? Technological changes sure happen at a very rapid pace these days, especially in the field of telecommunications. Continuous popularity of social networking sites, the high demand for mobile browsing, and the availability of very affordable communications gadgets encourage more people to replace or upgrade their mobile phones almost yearly.

With this development, old gadgets often end up abandoned or worse, thrown into the trash together with drained phone batteries and broken chargers. These obsolete and unwanted electronic and electrical devices add up to millions of metric tons of e-waste disposed worldwide every year which cause toxic metals such as lead, mercury, cadmium, and beryllium to be released into the air and seep into the ground and waterways.

Through the years - some of the old phones that I have owned.

To combat the dumping of e-waste and promote stronger social and environmental practices, leading telecommunications company Globe Telecom is embarking on the biggest and most ambitious mobile recycling program in the Philippines. Dubbed as Project 1 Phone, it is designed to create awareness on proper e-waste disposal and to promote sustainability.

By donating unused, non-working, or damaged phones and tablets, mobile phone batteries, and even personal computers to the campaign, each Filipino would be able to do his share in minimizing not only the environmental impact of e-waste but also counter its harmful effects on health such as skin diseases and possible damage to vital organs and the skeletal system.

#Project1Phone.

Globe also makes it easy for its customers and other stakeholders to participate in the drive by providing donation bins in participating Globe Stores in various parts of the country (for the complete list, please visit the Globe Telecom website www.globe.com.ph/project1phone).

Schools, corporations, local government units, and other private and non-government organizations may also participate in the program by adopting recycle bins. Interested parties may email Globe at bridgecom@globe.com.ph.

All devices and accessories that Globe will gather shall be turned over to TES-AMM, a leading electronics waste recycler which will take responsibility for at end-of-life products to ensure that they are managed responsibly.

TES-AMM will, likewise, work on recovering precious metals and plastics from the recycled gadgets. Globe has committed to build at least 40 school buildings in the province of Aklan and proceeds of Project 1 Phone will be used to add to the said number since hundreds of classrooms are still needed in the area.