In recognising that mobile phones have become a necessary part of life, the State Member for Frankston Dr Alistair Harkness last week called on the Victorian Minister for Environment and Climate Change to establish mobile phone recycling points in government buildings in Victoria.

Dr Harkness is one of the growing number of MPs across Australia who are joining MobileMuster by hosting drop- off points in their local electorate offices and promoting the service to their constituents.

Dr Harkness went on to add: “If government buildings, such as electorate offices, schools and police stations, could be used a drop-off point for old mobiles phones, we could substantially reduce the number that end up in landfill”.

There are now 15 state and federal MPs who have joined MobileMuster in promoting and collecting mobile phones for recycling.

MPs, like local councils, liaise regularly with their local communities and are important partner to MobileMuster in spreading the word on how, why and where people should recycle their used mobile phones, batteries, chargers and accessories.

There are 128 state government authorities who collect mobile phones for recycling at over 210 locations nationwide. Just under a quarter of these locations are public drop-off points such as police stations. In 2008, State Government collection points sent in 1,460 kilograms, which included just over 4,500 handsets as well as batteries, chargers and accessories. This represents just over 1% of total MobileMuster collections for that period.