A MILLION tonnes of discarded televisions, computers, mobile phones, toasters and electric toothbrushes will have to be recycled by Bolton Council, a Euro MP has warned.
Almost all of this equipment now gets sent to landfill sites, but much of it contains highly toxic metals such as lead, mercury and cadmium which could eventually seep into water supplies. New rules on the disposal of electrical items have been hammered out by the European Parliament and will become law in Britain within two years.
Bolton MEP Chris Davies, a member of the European Parliament's negotiating team, described it as a "landmark" decision.
He explained that Bolton Council must, by the end of 2006, arrange to separate electrical waste from the rest of household refuse.
The Liberal Democrat MEP said: "For the first time we will see products being designed so that they can easily be taken apart and recycled at the end of their lives."
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