Ecotalk Phone Network (funds rewilding projects)
So you’ve switched to a more sustainable smartphone and recycled unwanted phones lying in drawers. So now what do you to help even more? How about switching your tariff to a sustainable phone network?
Just imagine if everyone in England switched to one of the companies below? It would mean a few small ethical companies, no more high streets ‘littered’ with expensive phone shops and pushy sales. And our wildlife charities and people on low incomes would all receive collective millions of pounds in donations.
You may be locked into a contract. If so, leave when you can. And also consider that with cheaper prices, you may even be better off paying the exit fee, you’ll have to do the maths!
ecotalk is another mobile network that funds rewilding for birds and native wildlife. Run on green energy (the founder is the man who runs Ecotricity – one of the few renewables that does not burn abattoir waste to make ‘green energy’), this offers 5G coverage and simple affordable plans, encouraging you to keep your present phone as long as possible, to stop electronic waste. The business model ‘not for dividend’ uses profits to give back to nature, rather than pay shareholders.
There are a range of SIM-only plans on rolling monthly contracts (with no exit fees if you decide to leave). The company’s motto is ‘bees don’t sting’. In other words, you won’t get hooked into shock price increases. And if you need help, you speak to a real human. Not only that, you can remember the person’s name, and ask to speak to the same person next time!
It even has an affordable basic tariff for those of us with dumb phones (simple ‘make calls and send a text, if you’re not a smartphone user).
It costs £2 a day to make calls in the EU. Outside the EU, international roaming is activated automatically when you arrive, but know that calls will be more expensive, so check rates before travel.
Projects supported by Ecotalk
Ecotalk works with ecological expert Chris Packham to choose rewilding sites (currently mostly in Sussex and Devon). Projects so far supported through this company’s donations include:
- Restoring habitats for beavers in Sussex
- Restoring habitats for wild barn owls
- Restoring natural hedge habitats for hedgehogs
- Planting flower-rich meadows and woodlands (Sussex)
- Protecting historic wet woodlands (Devon)
- Planting marshy scrapes (shallow ponds that prevent floods and provide habitats for wetland creatures) in Devon
