Project to track US cellphones, TVs for recycling

* Many end in landfills, shipped to Africa, Asia

* Recycling can recover gold, rare earths

By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent

OSLO, May 1 (Reuters) - A new international project will try to track discarded U.S. cellphones, TVs and other electronic waste to help recycle everything from gold to rare earths and protect human health, U.S. and U.N. officials said on Sunday.

Many electronic items end up at the bottom of drawers at home when they break or get outdated. Many are shipped abroad for recycling. Others get dumped in normal trash bins and vanish into landfills or are incinerated, releasing toxins.

Only about 10 to 15 percent get recycled properly, said Ruediger Kuehr, executive secretary of StEP (Solving the E-Waste Problem), a project led by the U.N. University that works with firms such as Dell and Nokia.

"Tracking flows around the world ... is fundamental to work out solutions," he told Reuters of $2.5 million in new funds over five years announced on Sunday from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to help track U.S. electronic waste.

The project will work with port officials in West Africa and Asia to try to estimate flows of everything from flat screen televisions to computers sent to developing nations for repair or recycling. Health laws in such nations are often lax.