Mobile Phone Owners Wasting £150m A Year
By Alison Steed
AN ASTONISHING £150m worth of mobile phones are thrown away in Britain each year, as we fail to make the most of mobile recycling.
Some 5.2m mobile phones go into landfill each year, and a further 45m handsets could end up that way, as despite each of us having an average of two handsets hanging around at home, three in five of us are not planning to recycle them.
The result is that they are missing out on some easy money.
James Parker, manager of mobiles at moneysupermarket.com, said: "People are constantly craving the latest gadget. This need to have the best and newest mobile phone on the market has resulted in many people accumulating spare handsets. If people recycle these surplus handsets, not only will they be doing their bit for the environment but they can also make a few pounds. Those people that have thrown away the 5.25m phones have effectively thrown away £150m that would have been paid out if the phones had been recycled."
The average payment for a recycled mobile is £29, but you can get as much as £150 depending on the handset you are recycling.
Mr Parker added: "Our first National Recycle Your Phone Week was a great success and moneysupermarket.com in partnership with love2recycle.com has paid out almost £1,000,000 and saved tens of thousands of phones from landfill in just one year. We hope this year's awareness week will continue to encourage people to recycle old phones - for the benefit of the environment as well as gaining a bit of extra cash."
To recycle your old handsets visit http://moneysupermarket.love2recycle.com
