The 64th Birkenhead Sea Scouts are running a charity recycling scheme as part of an international initiative headed by Redeem PLC (formerly Eurosource Europe LTD).
We have a charity bank which accepts mobile phones and printer cartridges. This is emptied periodically and sent to a UK collection centre.
Mobile Phones and PDA's
About 65-80% of the material content of a mobile phone can be recycled and reused. The battery is recycled separately from the mobile phone. All battery types can be recycled and the metal content recovered. Batteries are usually Lithium-Ion (LI) which mostly contain cobalt, nickel and small amounts of lithium. |
What happens during recycling
Mobile phone shredded, metals and plastics seperated. Metals include Aluminium, ferrous metals and copper. Can be smelted and purified for reuse.
PCB's smelted and copper seperated from other elements. Remaining sludge contains gold, palladium and platinum. Sent to precious metals plants for recovery.
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Plastics used as fuel for metal recovery processes. Recycling of plastics less common due to impurities. Can be used for low quality items such as plastic benches and fences.
Printer Cartridges
| Recycling printer cartridges helps the environment by reducing waste and cutting polution. For every discarded toner cartridge and assoiated packaging, approximately 1.5 kilograms of waste is created. |
By reusing spent cartridges the ammount of solid waste is reduced since they need only to be topped up with toner or ink. As such the cost to the consumer YOU is less. The remanufacturing technology is now very precise so there is no detremental effect on quality either.
the two types of cartridges collected under the scheme are:
- Laser toner cartridges
- Ink jet cartridges
Generally only originally manufactured cartridges are accepted with the exception of some Hewlett Packard and Canon series.
