A leading environmental group says telephone companies need to do more to encourage the recycling of mobile phones.

Planet Ark says Australians purchased seven million mobiles last year but fewer than 2 per cent of unwanted phones are recycled, compared to 75 per cent of used newspapers.

Group managing director John Dee says the major carriers have recycling bins in their stores but not enough people are aware of them.

Mr Dee says the phone companies should be sending SMS messages to their customers to inform them of their recycling programs.

"It's vital that the mobile phone industry actually make sure that everybody who has a mobile phone is aware of how they can recycle it and the simplest way to do that is not to launch a PR campaign," he said.

"It's just, send people an SMS, tell people where that they can easily recycle their mobile in the local area.

"Yet the industry is refusing to do that and the question from Planet Ark is, why?"