Mobile or cell phones (depending on which country you live in) cause a great deal of harm to the environment if allowed to enter landfill. Cadmium from the phone’s batteries (which is even more harmful then lead) can potentially leach into the soil and cause problems. For this reason it is important to recycle your old phones rather then throw them in the rubbish bin (or forget about them in a draw somewhere). Recycling also allows metals such as gold, silver, copper and nickel to be recovered from the old phones.