PUPILS are trying to turn their school green by collecting and recycling mobile phones.

A local company has agreed to buy the unwanted phones, which will be repaired and sent to developing countries.

Hipswell CE Primary School, at Catterick Garrison, hopes the project will raise £2,000 towards installing a wind turbine and solar panels. The rest of the money will come from grants and school funds.

Toni Hawes, the chairwoman of the parent teacher association, said the recycling campaign began when the children returned to classes after Christmas.

She said: "We are in the very early stages and have collected about 20 phones so far.

"We have a deal with a local phone company, Total Communications, which will buy the phones and they will be re-used in foreign countries."

Pupils receive a raffle ticket for each phone they take to school, and there will be a prize draw later this year.

The school is about to investigate how to gain planning permission for solar panels and a wind turbine, which would generate power for the premises, reducing bills and the school's carbon footprint.

Headteacher John Sykes is backing the project.

Mrs Hawes, a nurse at The James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough, hopes that local people will donate unwanted phones by taking them to the school office.

She said: "We are asking anybody and everybody for their old unwanted mobile phones, even if they do not work."

The idea for the phone collection came to Mrs Hawes and her husband, Karl, who is a governor at the school, during the Christmas holidays.

Mrs Hawes said: "It is the beginning of a long campaign and we will be thinking of other recycling and renewable energy projects. We are hoping for a local authority grant, and the school has some money to put towards the project. We hope that recycling mobile phones will raise between £1,000 and £2,000."

In November last year, Pannal Primary School, Harrogate, became the first school in North Yorkshire to have its own wind turbine.