In modern society, people are always changing their electronic devices. And doesn’t even matter if the technological advancement isn’t breakthrough, the order is to get the latest.

The result, in the best scenario, is that many smartphones get lost straight into our drawers.

In the worse scenario, they end up in the dumpster in developing countries like Ghana.

In those countries, tons of smartphones pile up in dumpsters, making e-waste one of the fastest growing problems. But, at the same time, an invisible problem to many of us.

Every year, according to Global E-waste Monitor, almost 2 million tons of e-waste is produced just in Brazil. Less than 3% of that is recycled.

Vivo (from Telefonica Group), Brazil’s biggest telecom company, wants to bring light to this problem, changing the mindset of people and making people rethink their use of electronic devices and act in a more conscious way.

Since dumpsters are far out of reach, the piles and piles of electronic waste are invisible to our eyes. But, it is not because they are invisible that they are inexistent.

So, we set out to bring people consciousness.

First, we invited people to dispose their smartphones at Vivo stores, all across the country.

Then, we showed them that their old smartphones could impact someone’s life in a positive way.

Brazil is a country with very little literacy and public libraries.

In partnership with Amazon, the world’s biggest bookseller, we developed a special technology to turn each smartphone disposed at Vivo stores in e-readers.

Putting the top 200 books in Brazil into each device and distributing them across the country, turning them into libraries that fit in one’s palm. Reaching public schools and communities that didn’t even have a library before.

First, we developed a campaign to Vivo consumers, inviting them to rethink the way they relate to – and get rid of - their smartphones.

To embody our proposal, we fit the entire project under the concept of RE-USE:

Rethink electronic usage.

After bringing awareness to the cause, we invited them to dispose their old smartphones at a Vivo store the next time they bought a new one.

Once the smartphones were turned in, we modified them and installed 200 books inside each one of them. What used to be e-waste became a whole library that fits in one’s palm.

We have been distributing these new devices across many small towns, with little to no access to books.

The first ones were communities where the Telefonica Group carries social initiatives. By 2020 we will have reached all 1,100 cities where Telefonica offers social support.

The books carry 200 different titles each, that way, they are able to address the interests and needs of many different age groups.

To further stimulate the smartphone’s adaptation, we distributed them in community centers and schools, where we trained teachers and school coordinators on how to use the refurbished smartphones.

To our surprise, not only are they learning how to use them, but they are also incorporating them into their lessons in schools across these towns.

The project has been a tremendous success at every community where it’s been implemented.

Many communities that just a few months before didn’t have a single book now have a whole library of titles at ease.

The project has already powered lessons for hundreds of students and enlightened the minds of many new readers. It’s truly a transformational effort.

If that wasn’t enough, we have seen a 27% growth in smartphone donations at Vivo stores since the start of the project.

As we bring people consciousness, we are preventing thousands of smartphones from going into the dumpster and forming a new generation of readers.

With design, we turned an obsolete component into a source of culture, education, and, at the same time, an instrument to raise awareness of people.