Brrring bring your old phones to London station for National Recycling Week

Members of the public can drop off their old mobile phones at recycle points in central London’s Liverpool Street station all this week as part of National Recycle Week. Recycle […]

Members of the public can drop off their old mobile phones at recycle points in central London’s Liverpool Street station all this week as part of National Recycle Week.

Recycle “tubes” will be dotted around the station as “secure and sustainable” collection points for old handsets.

Network Rail and phone operator O2 are behind the scheme, with cash raised through recycling phones going to the Railway Children, the homeless runaway children’s charity.

Liverpool Street station. Image: Thinkstock
Liverpool Street station. Image: Thinkstock

Research by Lookout estimates there are 28 million old phones lying unused in drawers and cupboards across the UK.

But that figure could be even bigger according to O2, which found last year there were roughly 70 million unused handsets in the UK, with an extra 30 million sold annually.

Phone drop off points will be in place between 16-22 June.

Another event coinciding with National Recycling Week is a hands-on exhibition at the Science Museum, where the public can collect, sort and photograph one month’s worth of museum rubbish.

Trash-obsessed artist Joshua Sofaer who has had a show at the Tate Modern is also displaying remodelled waste “to showcase the value and beauty that can be found in waste we produce”, according to the Science Museum.

Called ‘The Rubbish Collection’, it will be showing from today until 14 September.

Latest Podcast