At least 10,000 manufacturers in Europe in a sector worth more than 500 billion euros a year would be affected, according to industry sources.

Under the law, manufacturers would have to pay the cost of collecting and recycling old electronic goods which people want to throw away, this may include arranging door-to-door collections for waste goods or paying for someone else to do so.

"This is the most extensive recycling scheme that Europe has ever seen," David Bowe, a British Labour party EU deputy said.

"The days when fridges, televisions, toasters and mobile phones could be dumped in ditches or shovelled into landfills are coming to an end."

The law is almost certain to get the nod as parliament initially approved it in a first reading last year. EU governments, which share legislative powers with the assembly on the issue, have also said they want to push ahead with the plan.

By 2006, national governments would have to ensure that between four and six kilos of electronic scrap per person is collected each year and that up to 70 percent is recycled.

Consumer items would be labelled to stop people throwing them away. Instead, they will be encouraged to take them back to the shop where they bought them, or leave them out for a separate collection.

But the recycling drive will not come cheap. Industry lobby groups have said collecting, dismantling, sorting and reusing the waste could cost up to 15 billion euros a year.

ECO-DESIGN

Adrian Harris, secretary general of engineering industry group Orgalime, said it would cost an additional 40 to 80 billion euros to deal with the products that were sold before firms knew they would have to pay to recycle them.

"For us this is retroactive legislation," Harris said.

Orgalime hopes parliament will allow retailers to apply a fee to new products to cover the cost of dealing with the so-called historical waste.

This would mean consumers would be charged an extra 50 euro cents for a mobile phone and up to 20 euros on big items like fridges to fund the disposal of older models, Harris said.

The attack on electronic waste mountain follows a 2000 EU law on scrap cars which also made manufacturers pay for the disposal of their products in an effort to encourage "eco-design" - to create more recyclable products.

In both cases, the laws require careful removal of toxic chemicals from scrap before it can be shredded, dumped or burned, adding to the cost of recycling and encouraging firms to phase them out, or banning them altogether.