People offered mobile upgrades by their phone providers are being urged recycle their old ones to save the environment and their health.

The encouragement comes from mobile phone recycler envirofone which claims of the estimated 15 million phones upgraded a year, only four million are recycled. It also claims that 100 million handsets in Europe are thrown away each year.

Not only is this a waste resources but it is also harmful to the environment.

According to Greenpeace, mobile phones contain a number of dangerous substances which can lead to health problems. This includes cadmium which is often found in a phones battery. The organisation claims that a battery of a single phone could contaminate 600,000 litres of water.

Other metals in mobile phones include lead, which can damage the human central nervous system; fire retardants used in the wiring that can cause cancer and liver damage; and beryllium, which can cause lung damage.

To minimise such effects, envirofone has set up a scheme that pays people in cash or Argos vouchers to trade in their mobile phones.

According to Robert Fox, head of envirofone phone trading prices vary from £1 up to about £100 but “on average each user receives about £25,” he said.

“The phone must be working, we will recycle for free damaged phones and the type of phones that are most valuable depend on what the market wants at that time – at can vary from very high end to standard phones,” he added.

Once a price has been decided, sellers can also opt to donate some of the money they are getting to selected charities including Help the Hospices, Make a Child Smile and the Biscay Dolphin Research Programme .

The mobile phones envirofone.com receives are re-used in areas around the world which need them. This includes the Middle East, the Far East, Africa and Eastern Europe which often have poor landline infrastructure and leads to a demand for the type of mobile technology the UK would class as simple.

However, the company is keen to point out that they are not just ‘dumped’ in such countries,

“As an ISO 14001 company we do offer all our customers the ability to send back phones [when they no longer need them] for recycling,” said Fox.

The initiative will also help the public and businesses comply with the WEEE directive which comes into full force this year. Under the directive it will be a requirement for manufacturers and retailers to offer an effective recycling solution for unwanted mobile phones.