A surge in mobile phone recycling could take place as consumers prepare to get rid of their old phones and purchase the new Motorola Milestone 2.

The smartphone was announced today (September 1st 2010) by the US manufacturer and will be available in Europe towards the start of the fourth quarter.

Its feature set - including a five-megapixel camera with dual LED flash and support for up to 40GB of memory - could convince many people to trade in their old mobile phone via a mobile phone recycling website.

Alain Mutricy, senior vice president of portfolio and device product management at Motorola Mobility, said the Milestone 2 has a number of improvements over its predecessor.

He added: "This introduction not only reaffirms our commitment to innovate on Android, but offers consumers the leading-edge features they crave."

A US version of the handset, known as the Motorola Droid 2, went on pre-sale in America on August 11th.