By donating your old mobile phone to the Starship Children's Hospital you can help transform your clutter into hope for families.

To show its support the Thames-Coromandel District Council have put collection boxes in all of its offices and libraries around the district as part of the Starship Mobile Phone Appeal.

If you've got old mobile phones cluttering up your home why not donate them to the Starship Mobile Phone Appeal? All money raised through the appeal will be donated to the National Air Ambulance Service. Photo: Thinkstock

All money raised through the appeal will be donated to the National Air Ambulance Service - a cause sure to resonate with many residents and visitors to the Coromandel.

Council says the air ambulance provides a crucial service transporting sick people and accident victims to hospital, along with flying medical experts to emergencies around the country.

'Starship children's hospital is taking the phones that can still be used and selling them to firms that specialise in the resale of second-hand mobile phones,” says council. 'The phones collected are data wiped and sim/memory cards removed and destroyed.

'The working phones are refurbished and sold as low-cost handsets in developing nations in places such as Africa and Asia.”

Phones that no longer work are broken down and recycled in an environmentally friendly way.

The Starship appeal is the first e-waste recycling programme in the country to achieve Government accreditation and is New Zealand's only accredited mobile handset recycler.

'So, you can help a very good cause and help de-clutter your home by getting rid of any old mobile phones lying around.”

For more information on the mobile phone appeal visit the Starship Children's hospital website at: www.starship.org.nz/foundation/mobile-phone-appeal/