Money4urmobile.com, a company which as its name would suggest, pays you for recycling your mobile phone, predicts a 15% rise in the number of Nokia handsets being recycled this year. It seems that with the rise in popularity of the i-phone and Blackberry we are discarding our traditional mobile phones and, with the current state of the economy, who could blame us for wanting to convert them into cash?

Nokia takes the top three places in the recycling charts, according to figures from money4urmobile, with Sony Ericsson coming fourth and fifth. The public is becoming increasingly aware of the benefits of recycling items such as phones, not only in terms of the environment but also our pockets. In fact, certain mobiles are worth £150 if recycled.

The average life expectancy of a mobile phone is a mere 18 months with many of us upgrading our handset every time our contract comes up for renewal. The average person in the UK has two mobiles languishing at home and if you are under 20 this figure rises to three. If you think that is bad, consider the residents of India, where the average number is five.

Only 17% of people in India are aware that mobiles can be recycled and Nokia has started a campaign to increase awareness, with green incentives being offered such as the planting of a tree for each handset deposited in their recycle bins.

If you are living in the UK and are more interested in hard cash than trees being planted, take a look at the website for money4urmobile and see how much you could get for your old phone.