KreativeGeek

Make money from your old mobile phone

It's always the same - as soon as you buy a new mobile, it's superceded by another model. So if you want to keep up, you could end up with a drawer full of old mobiles that are unlikely to see the light of day ever again. So how about trading them in for some cash, in-store credit or a contribution to charity?

One firm, Envirofone.com, has so far paid out more than £250,000 this year alone to people recycling their old mobiles since the beginning of the year. They pay cash, credit that can be used at Argos or you can nominate a charity to benefit. The firm then reconditions the handsets for use overseas, where the cost of new phones is too high for the average person.

It's estimated that around 15 million phones are upgraded each year in the UK, but fewer than three million are recycled or re-used - something envirofone want to change.

According to their chief executive Pete Petrondas: "Unlike traditional schemes, we recognised that we needed to encourage the general public to recycle so we decided to offer them either cash or credit from Argos."