3 Easy Ways to Reduce the Environmental Impacts of Cell Phones

Sony Ericsson recently unveiled the two latest additions to its Green Heart line, the Sony Ericsson Green Hazel and the Sony Ericsson Green Elm. The Green Heart series is Sony Ericsson’s initiative to reduce the carbon footprint of their phones by using greener manufacturing standards and using recycled materials. But how much environmental impact can a cell phone really have? After all, they barely fill up a jeans pocket, so how much space can they really take up in a landfill? When you consider how many mobile phone users worldwide (about 4.1 billion) and how often we toss out of our old gadgets in favor of the next big thing (once a year on average), cell phone waste really adds up. Enticed by new free phones with renewed contracts, an estimated 140 million cell phone users discard their handsets each year.

But what’s more troublesome for Mother Earth is what goes into a cell phone. As with all electronic components, there are a number of toxic and unstable metals and materials (cadmium, copper, arsenic, beryllium, and lead) that make your smartphone tick and the environment wince. Plus, there are other nontoxic materials that take vast amounts of energy and natural resources to manufacture, including plastic, glass and even gold (iamgreen estimates that $56 million worth of gold has been consigned to junk heaps via cell phones).

If all that has you feeling guilty, then there are some measures you can take to lighten the burden that your cell phone has bestowed on the planet:

Unplug your cell phone charger

Did you know that your cell phone charger sucks down energy even when it’s not plugged into your phone? As long as your charger is plugged into the wall, it’s draining electricity from the grid. It’s not much on your monthly electricity bill (about half a watt), but multiply it by billions (more, considering some of us have two or more chargers) and it adds up to enough wasted energy to power 28,000 homes each day.  Solution: pull the plug once your battery’s topped up. Or better yet, get yourself a solar powered cell phone charger.

Recycle Your Phone

There are tons of better things to do with your old mobile phone rather than plunk it in the dumpster. You can trade it, sell it for cash (check out our own buy/sell/trade mobile forum), donate it to a worthy cause (your old cell phone could save the life of a senior citizen or low-income individual – most can dial 911 even without a contract) or have it recycled.  Most big box electronics and office supply stores and cell phone plans providers sponsor a recycling program – it’s as easy as popping it in the mail or dropping it off at the store. Who knows, you may wind up with parts of your old phone in your next earth-friendly mobile phone made from recycled materials.

Buy a Green Mobile Phone

Sony Ericsson’s Green Heart phones are just a couple examples of high tech handsets for the Earth conscious. Check out the Samsung Reclaim or the Motorola Renew, which are both made from recycled material.

These few easy steps for greening your mobile presence can go a long way (especially if these practices are universally adopted) without cramping your style. If you have one or two old phones laying around in your junk drawer, take time today to find out how to recycle or donate them – you’ll be helping out the planet and decluttering at the same time.

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Related posts:

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2. Refurbished Cell Phones, MOTO 233 Renew: Going Green With Your Cell Phones
3. Samsung Eco-Phone ‘Blue Earth’ Runs On Solar Power
4. How can cell phones go Green?
5. New Nokia Concept Phone Recharges through Body Heat
6. Cell Phones and Recycling: The Truth
7. Mobile Giving: Ways to Help Haiti with Your Cell Phone
8. What Is Sony Ericsson?
9. Solar Cell Phone Chargers Add Green Portability
10. The World Hits 5 Billion Active Cell Phones and 50 Billion By 2020

Tags: green mobile

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009 at 10:10 am by Jack Busch and is filed under Cell Phones. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.