A British mobile phone recycling company based in Macclesfield is able to utilise old handsets to extract platinum.

Eazyfone Group stated this week that its mobile phone recycling website, Envirofone.com, had received 30 million hits since its inception in March 2006 and had paid out in the region of £400,000 for used handsets, reports letsrecycle.com.

Envirofone can extract traces of platinum from the handsets as well as gold and silver samples also. The firm also makes use of the batteries with special recycling firms able to use these to extract and reuse cadmium, nickel and lithium.

The company stated: "Every element of the phones and batteries is recycled. This enables such elements to be reused in industry.

"Phones are repackaged and refurbished. Resale and reuse takes place in growing economies around the world, where our mobile communications products are highly sought after."

According to the company, as many as 100 million old mobile phones are discarded in Europe. New legislation - due to come into play in the UK in 2007 under the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment directive - would make mobile phone recycling compulsory.


Ÿ Adfero Ltd