Council launches mobile recycling scheme

23 December 2010 - 12:12:56

Simon Harding

The council of Flintshire in Wales has started a new scheme which will make it easier and more convenient for consumers to recycle their unwanted electrical goods, including ageing mobile phone handsets.

The new Electrobanks will be rolled out to sit alongside bottle banks and paper recycling containers so that people will be able to chuck in old mobiles and other small electrical items, like kettles, without sending them straight to landfill.

Just three places in Flintshire will be getting the Electrobanks as part of this initial scheme,which will test the waters and determine whether or not a more widespread implementation of the banks is necessary.

Mobile phone recycling of this kind is offered at larger facilities around the UK, but it has yet to be carried out on a small scale, local level. Phones will be tossed in alongside computing components, toasters and other common household items, which can break or run out their useful lives before sitting untouched in a cupboard or draw.

The one problem with people recycling mobiles in this manner is that they will not be able to recoup any of the value of the phone. This means they could be missing out on a healthy cash injection when the time comes to upgrade their old handset in favour of something more modern.

Any push to increase the awareness of mobile recycling is to be supported, but with all the mobile recycling firms which operate online and the fact that, in most cases, it will cost a consumer nothing to send of their phone and have it valued, getting a bit of cash back for your old phone is the sensible route to take.