To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if he will estimate how many (a) mobile telephones and (b) printer cartridges were (i) recycled, (ii) reused overseas and (iii) disposed of within the waste stream in the last 12 months. (84068)

This Department does not collect information on the recycling or reuse of mobile phones or printer cartridges. The mobile phone industry estimates that 18 million handsets are replaced every year and that in 2003 and 2004, about five million handsets were collected by mobile phone recycling and refurbishment companies in the UK. The industry estimates that about 60 per cent. of these were refurbished and the remaining 40 per cent. were sent for materials recycling.