O2 Recycle creates "Walkie Talkies" combining old phones and vintage shoes
An artist has created four of the weirdest mobiles yet, dubbed "Walkie Talkies", to show off what can be done when people recycle their old phones – there are 70 million in the UK and 30 million new handsets are bought annually. The designs, created with O2 Recycle, aim to highlight what can be done with these old handsets, rather than being sent to landfill.*
The new phones, created by designer, Sean Miles from iconic footwear that includes a Christian Louboutin heel, a classic men's brogue, a Nike Air trainer and a Hunter Welly, contain old Nokia and LG handsets sent in by O2 Recycle customers who no longer had a use for them.
The Walkie Talkies are "upcycled" by combining recycled handsets and vintage shoes to create fully functional phones that double as pieces of desirable art. Each Walkie Talkie performs exactly as a normal phone would, the keypad being incorporated into the sole of each shoe.
The mobile phone upcycling project – upcycling being the process of converting waste materials or otherwise useless products into a new, desirable item – has been created by O2 Recycle, which pays up to £260 to those who recycle their gadgets.
Designer, Sean Miles, the man behind the designs, said: "I wondered how I could make phones that people might be embarrassed to be seen with into something that would give them a new lease of life – which is what upcycling is all about.
"I hoped that, by turning them into Walkie Talkies, I would raise a smile and perhaps a laugh and create things that people wanted once again. I've been using them while out with friends and they never fail to start a conversation, even when I'm not using them as a phone! I hope that they can get more people talking about the need to recycle old gadgets rather than binning them."
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