New Zealand’s coastlines and marine animals are better off as a result of tens of thousands of mobile phones recycled each year through RE:MOBILE. For every phone recycled with RE:MOBILE, money is donated to Sustainable Coastlines, an award-winning charity that exists to protect the ocean we all love by bringing people together to reduce plastic pollution and other litter.

Sustainable Coastlines’ goal is to see clean coastlines across Aotearoa New Zealand. They intend to achieve this by empowering communities to take action for their local beach through inspirational clean-up events, educational programmes, public awareness campaigns, and litter data collection.

More than $230,0000 has been donated to Sustainable Coastlines by RE:MOBILE since the partnership began in 2016. Initially, these funds supported Sustainable Coastlines’ riparian planting project, funding the planting of over 14,600 trees alongside waterways across Aotearoa. These trees continue to grow and create positive biodiversity outcomes for our waterways.

In 2023, Sustainable Coastlines went back to its roots and zeroed-in on tackling plastic pollution and other litter, a goal which RE:MOBILE continues to support with funds raised through the donation of mobile phones. Since Sustainable Coastlines was established in 2009, their volunteers have removed more than 1.7 million litres of litter from coastlines across Aotearoa. Most commonly, that litter includes things like food wrappers, polystyrene, rope, bottle tops, and cigarette butts. Removing this harmful litter from our marine environment makes for happier ecosystems and healthier wildlife — and safer, more beautiful beaches for us.

To stop the flow of plastic pollution and other litter to our coastlines, we need to look upstream. When people attend a beach clean-up and see the problem first-hand, it sparks behaviour change. Alongside the changes people can make in their everyday lives, Sustainable Coastlines enables people to ask the right questions and take action to influence broader change.

RE:MOBILE is proud to be able to support Sustainable Coastlines efforts to protect the beaches and wildlife we all love.

Find out more about Sustainable Coastlines and how you can get involved.