A new collection scheme for old mobiles and ink cartridges is being set up at Household Waste Recycling Centres in the county to help reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill.
In 2003, up to 14,000 tonnes of cartridges ended up in landfill in the UK, the council said, including over 20 million “potentially toxic” redundant mobile phones.
Three community groups will collect the phones and cartridges from the county council's 10 recycling centres through its Community Reuse and Recycling Network, selling the collected phones to reprocessors. The groups will keep the funds raised, with the county council paying the running costs of the project.
Mark Shelton, Cambridgeshire's waste reduction and recycling manager, said: “The county council has been working on a number of initiatives with local community groups and charities through the Community Reuse and Recycling Network, and we are very pleased to be able to launch this new collection scheme that will help to provide some additional income to local groups as well as recycling old phones and cartridges.”
Groups
The community groups taking part in the scheme are Fenland Area Community Enterprise Trust (FACET) based in March, Opportunities Without Limits (OWL), based in Sawston and Branching Out, based in Littleport.
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Terry Brook, general manager of Branching Out, said the collection contract would enable the group to provide more work, learning and leisure opportunities in the community for people with a range of learning difficulties and disadvantages.
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