Comet launches mobile phone recycling initiative

NEWS High street electrical retailer Comet has launched a mobile phone recycling programme to rescue the spare parts of 90 million handsets. Comet has kicked off the initiative by supplying the entire UK population with pre-paid envelopes to send old and unwanted phones to a recycling company. The firm which will dismantle the discarded handsets, XS Tronix, already runs a salvaging service through Tesco stores. Around 30 per cent of the handsets XS Tronix currently collects are sold off to developing countries, while the rest are stripped for parts. Chris Bruce-Payne, COO of XS Tronix, said: "At the moment we are doing up to three thousand handsets each day. The emerging markets we ship salvageable handsets to are mostly India and sub-Saharan Africa." He added: "Some analogue 'house-bricks' we get hold of are high in precious metals whereas newer phones are rich in chip content. Chips are traded by a broker to the toy industry." The trend of recycling handsets is growing steadily and will become a legal requirement by 2005, in accordance with EU guidelines.