A scheme to cut down on waste by recycling old mobile phones is being introduced this week.

It is estimated that more than 90 million old handsets are being hoarded, unused, in cupboards and drawers all over Britain.

Now owners of old phones will be able to put them in a pre-paid envelope and send them off to a recycling company.

The scheme is being run in the UK by electrical retailer Comet and comes two years ahead of the implementation of new European legislation designed to eliminate electrical waste.

Deadline

The law - based on a European directive - will mean manufacturers will have to accept back old products and recycle them.

It is the latest in a series of schemes to encourage mobile phone recycling.

Up to 10,000 manufacturers in Europe could be affected by the latest move.

It is expected to cost the industry up to �1bn a year, with an additional one-off cost of up to �5bn to deal with the existing backlog of waste equipment.

The changes would need to be incorporated across the European Union by 2005. Currently, only 10% of electrical goods are recycled in the EU.

About 45 million people in the UK own mobile phones.

Charities

Last year a Scottish-based recycling company began a scheme to collect old mobiles from across the country.

Eurosource, in Falkirk, planned to sell to African countries with poor landline telecommunications.

And last year the charity Oxfam began an appeal for old mobiles to raise money for charitable causes.

Earlier this month, Britain missed the deadline to implement a similar European ruling on recycling old cars.

The European directive came into operation last Sunday but the UK, like most other European Union countries, has failed to decide how to make the idea work.