Eco-Friendly Cell Phones

By: Sandra Stoner

The other day I overheard a girl talking about how she was upset about the fact that her fiancé was refusing to leave his Blackberry behind on their wedding day. Wow, I thought. We really have reached the time when we are obsessed with our phones.

But can we really call them just phones anymore? The new Google phone comes complete not only with internet connection and a camera, but also the ability to make your own short movies and get turn-by-turn driving directions. It’s a complete technological package all rolled up into one.

Most people are totally aware of everything that these new super-phones can accomplish, but how many of us understand the ecological footprint that we are making just by making a phone call or watching a YouTube video on them? I’m guessing not many.

In fact, the Coltan used to store the power in our cell phones must be mined, and the majority of it is found in Africa’s National Parks. There has been large-scale deforestation in many countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo in order to export Coltan globally so that we can upload a picture text message of our best friend’s puppy.

Sadly, the mining and deforestation have drastically affected the human population in these areas (there have been outbreaks of civil wars over the resource), as well as animal populations such as gorillas. Some scientists have reported that up to 90% of gorilla populations living in Coltan-filled areas have decreased.

But green phones exist. We can use our phones to make a difference. For example, there is the Chinese HTW S116 Solar Mobile Phone, which doesn’t use a power cord to charge up but instead gets its energy mainly from the sun. Motorola too has recently patented a design to use solar cells on the front side of cell phones.

There is also the Solio Universal Solar Charger kit that can be used on sunny days to keep your phone charged. Sources claim that the battery charged solar charger can offer up to 8 hours of phone time.

Cell phone recycling centers have also begun springing up in stores such as Best Buy. These are important because the Coltan in them can be recycled and reused; which means less Coltan needs to be mined; which means there will be less of a need for the exportation of Coltan; which means less war, less deforestation….you get the idea. You can even specify that you want the proceeds to benefit gorilla conservancy projects so that they too can benefit.

This website lists these Eco-Friendly recycling centers:
http://www.eco-cell.org/locate_recycler.asp

So when your next 2 year contract expires with Verizon, or Sprint, or Cellular One, or whichever other cell phone supplier you use, look into purchasing an Eco-Friendly phone. Hopefully someday soon we can be more aware of Green Phones than “phones” that can email a friend and tell us to turn right on Mulberry Street.