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Spain unleashes the Mobile Muncher

Millions of mobile phones are now obsolete

"Don't throw me away - recycle me!" is the message he is taking round the country in a brightly coloured campaign bus.

Launching the campaign, Environment Minister Jaime Matas said the aim was to collect 100 tonnes of mobile phones in the first year.

Small is beautiful

Spanish television said 17 million people in Spain used mobile phones, and that there were three million obsolete sets ripe for recycling.

With mobiles getting progressively smaller and lighter, many people are buying newer models and discarding the old ones.

Many just throw their old mobiles into the back of a drawer - or even worse, on to a waste site where the batteries can leak damaging toxic substances into the environment.

The campaign aims to inform people about the environmental benefits of recycling.

Minced mobiles

The Mobile Muncher bus will visit all towns with a population of more than 50,000 over the next few months.

There will also be more than 300 collection points in shops and service outlets.

Once they are collected, all the sets will be brought to the recycling plant in the northern Basque town of Bilbao, where they will be dismantled.

The battery, which is the most dangerous component, is separated out for special treatment.

The rest is ground up to be reused in the manufacture of the next generation of mobiles and electronic equipment.