Michelle Dewberry gets to deal with left over Amstrad Em@ilers

The new winner of hit BBC show The Apprentice has been given a job in the PC industry by Sir Alan Sugar.

Telecoms consultant Michelle Dewberry won the 'Ice Woman v Badger' final, and will now launch a new Amstrad company called Xenon Green. The company will recycle used computers from corporate clients.

"It's called Xenon Green. Xenon because that's one of our companies and Green for all that goody-goody stuff," Sir Alan told Associated Press.

"It's going to be a kind of greenfield business and Michelle is going to mastermind the thing. We're going to turn it into a very, very big business."

Sir Alan is hoping to cash in on the European Union's WEEE directive, which aims to ensure that used computer equipment and other electronic devices are recycled or disposed of in line with EU guidelines.

The directive was due to come into force this year but may now be delayed until 2008.

Computer recycling is well established in other countries but has been slow to take off in Britain. Ms Dewberry will be going up against the likes of Dell's recycling arm set up in 2004, and the alliance between HP, Braun, Electrolux and Sony.

Ms Dewberry, a former supermarket checkout girl from Hull, won the £100,000 a year job despite losing the final task. Prior to the competition she had worked at Tiscali and was running her own telecoms consultancy.