A RECYCLING charity has won a council's support.

Stockton Borough Council is working alongside ActionAid Recycling by setting up a collection point at the authority's environment centre, in the town's West Row, for old mobile phones and used cartridges for printers, photocopiers and fax machines.

The waste products will be recycled and the money raised spent on overseas aid.

Yesterday, Councillor Steve Nelson, Stockton council's cabinet member for the environment, appealed to residents and workers to take their used items to the centre.

"In the UK alone, more than two million printer cartridges are thrown away and 15 million mobiles are left unwanted each year," he said.

"At the same time, a third of the world's children do not have enough food to survive. The aim of ActionAid Recycling is to reduce waste and reduce poverty and any donation, however small, can help make a significant difference.

"Just one cartridge could pay for teaching materials for five children in an education centre in Ethiopia, while six cartridges could buy a season's planting seeds for ten families in Burundi.'