SINGAPORE - Residents in seven neighbourhoods in the South East District will soon find it easier to get rid of unwanted mobile phones or laptops.

They will be able to dispose of gadgets that they do not want at 25 locations, through monthly collection drives over the next nine months.

Collections will be done on the first Sunday of each month, and rotated across Marine Parade, Mountbatten, Braddell Heights, Geylang Serai, Kembangan-Chai Chee, MacPherson and Potong Pasir. Each division will be visited twice over nine months.

The first collection will be at Braddell Heights, Potong Pasir, MacPherson, Mountbatten and Katong Community Centres on Feb 1.

The details were announced on Friday, when the second phase of the Heartland E-Waste Recycling Programme was launched by Dr Maliki Osman, mayor of South East District, and MP for Mountbatten Mr Lim Biow Chuan.

Singapore's first neighbourhood recycling programme for electronic waste was piloted from July 2013 to January 2013 in Marine Parade and Mountbatten. During the pilot, 10,204 kg of recyclables were collected, which amounted to 1,812 pieces of e-waste.

The programme is part of a partnership between Panasonic Asia Pacific, South East Community Development Council, the National Environment Agency and e-waste recycler Cimelia.

Panasonic has pledged to donate 5,000 energy-saving light bulbs to less privileged families in Marine Parade and Mountbatten, based on the amount of recyclables collected. The pilot earned 2,719 light bulbs, 320 of which were installed on Friday.

"Through this programme, we are able to connect our public, private and people sectors to heighten the awareness of e-waste recycling and support a social cause by raising energy-saving light bulbs for the less privileged families in South East District," said Dr Maliki.

He said he hoped "more residents will step forward to do their part in recycling their e-waste, at the same time helping fellow Singaporeans".