The Marine Connection, are urging individuals and companies to save office materials that normally end up in the bin – mobile phones, toner and printer cartridges, in order to help raise funds for our vital work in the UK and worldwide. The charity works with one of the UK's leading recycling company, in an innovative fundraising scheme. Every time someone donates a cartridge or old mobile phone, the charity will receive a cash donation.

Liz Sandeman, Director of Operations says; “Throwing away an old mobile phone or printer cartridge is not environmentally friendly for the earth or our oceans. Some mobile phone batteries contain cadmium and other dangerous and toxic substances. Once dumped in landfill sites, the phone casing corrodes and the cadmium leaks into the soil and quite possibly end up in rivers and oceans. Very few printer cartridges are recycled and in the last decade it is estimated that millions of pounds worth of printer cartridges were quite simply dumped when they had outlived their use.”

There is no cost whatsoever involved in participating in this appeal as free recycling prepaid bags are available. Large companies can also collect printer cartridges and mobiles phones within their offices. Once they have 20 items, the charity can arrange for them to be collected free by courier! Supporters are being asked to collect unwanted mobile phones, chargers and phone batteries, plus used printer inkjet and toner cartridges (not Epson Inkjet), from friends, relatives, neighbours, local businesses and from their own workplace.

If you would like to receive pre-paid recycling bags to help with this
appeal, at no cost to yourself and help turn used items into funds to help save dolphins and whales, please contact the Marine Connection on 020 7499 9196 or email here.

Interesting facts:

Printer Cartridges
1. More than 1.1 billion inkjet cartridges are used annually around the world - laid end to end this would be 129 times as long as the Great Wall of China
2. Each discarded empty laser printer cartridge adds approximately three pounds of waste to our landfills
3. The plastic used in a typical cartridge is made of engineering grade polymers and is expected to take up to 1000 years to decompose
4. More than 30 million inkjet cartridges are dumped each year in the UK (1800 tonnes) - the same weight as 18 Blue Whales

Mobile Phones
1. There are about 50 million mobile phone subscribers in the UK
2. The average mobile phone user will replace their handset once every 18 months.
3. It is estimated that less than 20% of all unused mobile phones in the UK are currently recycled
4. Estimates state that close to 90 million phones are hiding in drawers and cupboards across the UK (11250 tonnes) - these weigh almost six times as much as the London Eye!