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Nokia offers "amnesty" for old phones: "We'll recycle them for you"

"If all of the three billion people that own mobile phones globally brought back just one unused device, we could save 240,000 tonnes of raw materials and reduce greenhouse gases to the same effect as taking four million cars off the road."

The quote is from Markus Terho, Nokia's director of environmental affairs, who has just completed a global survey of whether people even try to recycle phones.

His figures back up NewsWireless estimates, which suggest that most people just keep their antique phones, with some of our readers admitting to having "dozens" of museum pieces.

The good news is that very little of the resources (including toxic chemicals) will get dumped. The bad news: nobody is recycling them, either.

Nokia: "Only one in ten people in the UK recycle their mobile phone, according to a global consumer survey. In addition, two thirds of people surveyed did not even think about recycling their devices and nearly one fifth (17%) were unaware that it is even possible to do so."

That's a lot better than some countries, Nokia says. The survey - based on interviews with 6,500 people in 13 countries including Finland, Germany, Italy, Russia, Sweden, UK, United Arab Emirates, USA, Nigeria, India, China, Indonesia and Brazil - shows globally, just 3% of people say they recycle their unwanted devices, whilst nearly half weren’t actually aware that a mobile phone could be recycled.

But they are not just thrown away: only 3% in the UK are going straight into landfill.

"Instead the majority, 48% are simply being kept at home, unwanted and never used. Others are giving their mobile phones another life in different ways. A fifth of people (19%) are passing on their old mobile phones to friends or family, and 8% are being resold," said Nokia.

In the UK, you can hand them in at the Nokia HQ - a store in London's Regents Street. Simon Ainslie, Managing Director of Nokia UK said, "Having seen the results of our global survey, we wanted to help the UK public do even more when it comes to recycling mobile phones. From today, anyone can come along to our London store and hand in their old handsets, whatever the make, and we’ll recycle it for them."

For those who don't live within quick commuting distance of central Westminster, you can find the nearest take back point on the Web: visit www.nokia.com/WeRecyle