YOU CAN WIN A BOOK VOUCHER IN RETURN FOR YOUR OLD MOBILE PHONE
22. 6. 2021
This unique event focusing on collecting old mobile telephones will start today in the Olomouc Region. The residents of nearly six dozen municipalities throughout the region have the opportunity to win a book voucher in the value of CZK 1,000 and a number of other tangible prizes. The most successful libraries, with the greatest number of collected mobile phones, will also receive funds for small investments or organisation of events for the public.
“It is easy to take part in the competition called “Leave your Mobile Phone at the Library” – simply place any old mobile phone in the marked box at libraries or at municipal authorities throughout the entire region and give your contact data on it. The more telephones participants bring and identify with their contact data, the greater their chance of winning,” Zdeněk Kovářík, Regional Manager of the ASEKOL non-profit organisation, explained.
The competition is divided into four population size categories in order to assure fair assessment – population up to 1,000, population up to 6,000, population over 6,000 and statutory cities. The most successful libraries, with the greatest number of collected mobile phones, can receive up to CZK 10,000. The Olomouc Region has donated financial rewards of a total value of CZK 30,000 to the competition.
“According to estimates there are hundreds of thousands of, often, non-functional mobile phones lying around homes throughout the entire region. People often don’t wish to discard them for nostalgic reasons for instance. But these old devices can be recycled thereby conserving primary resources, as a result of extraction of precious metals in African jungles for instance. I hope that people will search their draws and bring their telephones to us when they come to borrow a good detective story for their holiday for example,” Martin Šmída (PirSTAN), councillor of the Olomouc Region for the Environment and Agriculture, explained.
Leave Your Mobile at the Library is a joint project by the region and the ASEKOL collective system, and Vice-chair of the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic and regional representative Jitka Seitlová (Spojenci – KpOK), who donated book vouchers for the winners who are also readers, has assumed patronage over the event. “Libraries are often the only place of social contact in small municipalities. So it seemed logical to us to address readers at this time and ask them to participate in this beneficial event, “Seitlová added.
Participants can hand in the devices until the end of September this year to more than 150 collection sites throughout the region. The competition will be judged and the prizes awarded in October. A regularly updated list of participating libraries, including more detailed information and the rules, can be found on the website at www.odlozmobil.cz. You can find the locations of red containers in your area at www.cervenekontejnery.cz.