Recycle your old phone and ring in the pounds

Six months on from moneysupermarket.com's first annual ‘National Recycle Your Phone Week', savvy moneysupermarket.com users have recycled almost 20,000 old mobile handsets, making an average of £43 per person.

The most popular handset to be recycled in the past six months is the Nokia N95, earning the recycler £105. Although many people have realised the financial and environmental benefits of recycling old mobiles, recent research from moneysupermarket.com revealed that one in six (15 per cent) people claim to not know how to recycle old mobile phones or didn't even know they could.

James Parker, manager of mobiles at moneysupermarket.com, says; "It is great news to have recycled 20,000 phones in just six months. Not only have people saved tonnes of waste from landfill but have also made quick and easy money at the same time, in some cases pocketing over £100.

"People regularly upgrade their phones for the latest model whether their old handset is still working or not. This need for the latest gadget is why people are accumulating more spare phones than ever before. If recycled, they can be put to good use."

1.5 million mobile phones are thrown away each year and another 50 million could soon find their way to landfill sites as over two-thirds (67 per cent) of people are not recycling old handsets, despite the fact mobile handsets are extremely hazardous to the environment if discarded, especially the lead, cadmium and mercury present in the batteries.

Parker added: "The average person has two mobile phones, increasing to an average of three for those under 20. That's a huge number of handsets just lying around that could be put to good use through recycling and could be worth a fair amount of cash."

To recycle your old handsets visit moneysupermarket.love2recycle.com