Bradford's businesses are being urged to give away old computers to help children - and save the environment.

A new re-cycling company called PoisonSpring.com is offering to collect old PCs, computer equipment, faxes and printers to strip them down and recycle them.

The firm, the brainchild of general manager Norman Chafer, sells the equipment to organisations who would struggle to buy the items new.

Mr Chafer said: "Businesses throw away thousands of pounds of computer and office equipment a year due to technology updates.

"Most of it ends up in landfill sites and gradually poisons the environment. We can put the equipment, much of which others would consider useless, to very good use."

A new computer can cost thousands, equipment from PoisonSpring.com can cost as little as £3.50 a week for a year.

The firm, which started trading on April 1, is also set to donate a proportion of its recycled equipment to organisations which work with children and those with learning problems.

In 1998 more than 20 million computers were scrapped, only 11 per cent were recycled.

The average PC contains up to one pound of lead, which protects the user from radiation, toxins, dangerous metals and even trace amounts of arsenic, which when dumped in landfills can cause massive pollution problems.

Mr Chafer added: "There isn't any common sense reason for people to throw computers away.

"We will come and take then away free of charge from anywhere in Yorkshire, and put them to good use."

For further information visit PoisonSpring.com or call 0808 1452514 free of charge.