October 26 2000

Australians will be urged to hand in 10 million outdated mobile telephones to avoid a future environmental disaster being triggered by the dumping of their highly toxic electronic components.

The ambitious recycling project will be launched tomorrow with a $400,000 radio, newspaper and television campaign by the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association, which represents phone manufacturers and communications carriers.

Its chief executive officer, Mr Peter Russell, said yesterday Australians were still holding onto 10 million unwanted mobiles - mostly analogs - enough to fill 10 Olympic swimming pools.

A chemistry professor warned that the phones had components which could, if burnt, produce pollutants more toxic than dioxin.

Mr Russell said his association was concerned that if the phones were not collected they would end up in garbage tips. "There are small amounts of cadmium and nickel in the batteries," he said. "If they are dumped into landfill they can contaminate the soil and get into ground water."

The retrieval campaign was backed as "terrific" by Professor Ben Selinger, emeritus professor of chemistry at the Australian National University in Canberra.

"There is a need to get all electronic hardware back," said Professor Selinger, adding that mobile phones, computers and televisions contained "just about everything".

"There is lead in the solder and gallium and arsenic in the transistors. There is nickel cadmium in the batteries. Cadmium in particular is bad news. It's very toxic if it leaches in the waterways."

Mr Russell said 700 shops across Australia had already agreed to serve as collection points and he hoped that up to 3,000 would be in the scheme within 18 months.