Green Cell Phones: Doing Their Part

When talking about green cell phones, we are talking about one of two things at the current time.

First, we can discuss cell phones that are made of either recycled or biodegradable materials. Biodegradable products are less harmful to the environment, their waste is not toxic and they break down readily. Recycled materials obviously mean that the manufacture of these devices consumes fewer resources or helps to reduce waste. Some manufacturers are also trying to reduce packaging and to use recycled materials for this as well

Secondly, we can discuss cell phones that use an alternative energy source. In reality, your cell phone uses such a relatively small amount of energy it doesn't really have a significant impact on the overall picture of energy use, despite the fact there are many millions of them in use. But of course, we all want to do our share, and help where we can. Fewer batteries, means fewer problems with battery disposal. In addition, what comes along for cell phones, may well spell the future for other devices. Of course the other benefit of alternative energy sources, is that they may make keeping a cell phone powered up more reliable and convenient. If your cell phone uses your motion or the sun to charge itself you don't have to worry as much about your phone going dead while you're sunbathing or out on a hike.

Even those phones with traditional energy sources may make use of technologies to reduce their energy consumption overall. Sensors to decrease brightness or chargers that use fewer kilowatt hours when in stand-by are examples.

Having a cell phone made of biodegradable content, or at a minimum one made with recycled materials, is a plus for the environment. One helps reduce the problems with toxic waste that piles up every year as cell phones are discarded and the other helps to reduce waste in general.

In 2008, Nokia brought their 3110 Evolve to market. It's cover is constructed from 50% renewable material and it's charger is 94% more energy efficient than the standards required by Energy Star. In addition, it's packaged with materials composed of 60% recycled content. The phone is fairly basic. It's a triband GMS phone, with a basic candybar design. It has a 1.8" display and features Bluetooth technology, a built in 1.3 megapixel camera, a media player that supports MP3, MP4, AAC+, and WMA formats, a stereo FM radio, and WAP 2.0 browser. Users get SMS, MMS, and e-mail support, speakerphone functions, and the ability to expand memory with a microSD card with up to 2GB storage.

Motorola's W233 Renew is a green cell phone as well. It's touted as the first carbon-free cell phone on the US market. It has a housing made of 100% recycled plastic and comes with a postage paid recycling envelope so that it's disposal is handled appropriately. The phone has no hazardous chemicals whatsoever and, in fact, Motorola has reportedly calculated the energy used to manufacture, distribute, and use the phone over it's life time and through it's alliance with Carbonfund.org, offsets that amount of energy. The Renew is a very basic phone intended primarily for voice calling. It is a candybar style GSM phone with a 1.6" display. It can accept a 2GB memory card and offers users a basic MP3 player, SMS, and MMS messaging. You can learn more about Motorola's Eco Policy and so forth here.

Another option for those seeking a green cell phone is the Sony Ericsson C901 which should be available before the end of 2009. It's a candybar style quad-band GSM phone that makes use of reduced packaging including the use of an in-phone electronic manual versus the traditional paper user manual. It's housing is made of 50% recycled plastics and it possesses a light sensor that reduces the phone's energy consumption. The phone, known as the GreenHeart, also boasts a 5 megapixel Cybershot camera with autofocus, Xenon flash, face and smile detection technology, and an automatic lens cover. It features a 2.2" display, media player and Bluetooth connectivity. Users get an HTML web browser, and SMS, MMS, instant messaging, and e-mail support. The included MH300 GreenHeart headset is also made of 100% recycled plastics.

In the second half of 2008, Samsung introduced their E200 Eco Phone. It's a GSM phone with a 1.8" display which has a housing constructed of plant based plastics. In addition, it's packaging is made of recycled materials. It offers a 1.3 megapixel camera with digital zoom, a media player with support for MP3, AAC, AAC+, and MPEG4 files, and a stereo FM radio. Users also get SMS, MMS messaging, and e-mail support, a WAP 2.0 browser and Bluetooth connectivity. However this phone is available in Europe but not in the US at this time.

Samsung and Sprint announced their eco-friendly phone, the Reclaim, in August 2009. It's constructed of 80% recyclable materials. They've skipped the printed manual and instead give you online access and the print on the box is done with soy-based inks. There's an optional solar powered charger as well. It features a QWERTY keyboard, business email, two-megapixel digital camera, stereo Bluetooth, and Sprint Navigation GPS.

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Some green cell phones also earn their title by offering more eco-friendly power sources; those sources that are renewable and clean.

For instance, Samsung introduced their Blue Earth model in early 2009. The phone is not yet available to consumers but should be later in the year. Not much is known about the phone, except that it's a solar powered touchscreen phone which can be charged from an outlet just as any current cell phone, or via it's large solar panel on the back. It's said that a full 10-14 hour charge will yield four hours of talk time. This is perfect for those who spend a great deal of time outdoors and are concerned about running their battery down. The phone is also free from hazardous substances and it's housing is made of recycled water bottles. It can be switched into Eco-Mode to reduce screen brightness, backlight duration, and to make use of an energy efficient Bluetooth mode. The phone's packaging is also made of recycled paper and it's charge is said to use less than .03W in stand-by mode.

LG has also announced they should be releasing a solar powered phone by the end of 2009. Their phone will reportedly provide 3 mintues of talk time after just 10 minutes of sun exposure.

Japan already has the Sharp Solar Phone SH002 but it isn't in the US. This phone, as the name would imply, allows you to power up using only the sun. It's said to provide a minute of talk time/2 hours stand-by time after a 10 minute exposure or 10 minutes of talk time after 2 hours exposure. The phone is also waterproof and offers Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity, GPS support, a TV tuner, and 5.2 megapixel camera. It's a 3" touch screen phone and does offer expandable memory. Although the phone isn't available in most of the world at this time, it does perhaps point to future offerings.

The future may also hold other sources of energy for powering up your cell phone. The Bionic Energy Havester is a device being developed by Bionic Power which attaches to your knee and uses the kinetic energy generated when you walk. Of course M2E has also been working on developing batteries that use kinetic energy to power a variety of devices, including cell phones. They hope to use all human motion to get the job done; perhaps requiring you to merely place your phone in your pocket to charge as you go about your business. On the other hand, Science Daily reported some time ago that ongoing research hopes to provide a solution to powering up your cell phone (and other devices) using sound waves and totally eliminating the need to use a battery. Of course, fuel cells are another potential option as this article points out in their discussion about Medis Technology's work. Medis currently has a fuel cell power pack available for portable electronics which you can see below.

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Photo Credits:

Introduction: NASA photograph courtesy of woodleywonderwork.
What are Green Cell Phones: A Girl and Her Camera.
Biodegradable/Recycle: go to/theworldsaddress/ instead.
Alternative Power Source: Jalalspages. (no derivative work allowed)