Neighbours star and former Miss Australia Erin McNaught wowed the crowds during Westfield Fountain Gate’s MobileMuster Guinness World Record event last Saturday.By Kelly Yates
WESTFIELD Fountain Gate turned into mobile mania last Saturday as Casey residents came together in an attempt to set a world record for the most mobile phones recycled in an hour.
The event kicked off at 1pm with the help of Neighbours star and former Miss Australia Erin McNaught.
More than 275 mobile phones were handed in for the MobileMuster Guinness World Record attempt.
The world record attempt took place simultaneously across Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Melbourne, with almost 2400 phones donated.
The result has been forwarded to Guinness Book of Records officials in London. A ruling is expected within four weeks.
The event was part of a campaign by MobileMuster and Landcare Australia, where a tree will be planted for every mobile phone recycled by World Environment Day on 5 June.
Manager of Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association Rose Read said the world record attempt was an exciting and innovative way to encourage Australians to recycle their old mobile phones.
She said that MobileMuster would recover more than 90 per cent of the metals and plastics found in mobile phones and turn them into jewellery, plastic fence posts and stainless steel.
MobileMuster’s figures, as of March 2008, showed that 80 per cent of people chose to keep or give away their old mobile phones with less than four per cent throwing them out.
Between 2006 and 2007, MobileMuster collected 86 tonnes of mobile phone components, including 577,000 handsets and batteries.
