In recent years the issue of climate change and the damage we're doing to the atmosphere has become a major issue. With particular focus on many of the technological advances that are harming our planet from Gas guzzling cars to leaving our mobile phone chargers plugged in. With many of us more concerned about how we can do our part to save the environment the manufacturers are being pressurised by organisations like Greenpeace to become "greener" and reduce the damage they're doing to the planet.
Mobile phones are no exception to this effort, with everyone knowing about the radiation caused by mobile phones, coupled with the fact that there are 50 million mobile phones in use in the UK alone, that's not far off the total population of 60.5 UK residents it all makes for a concern about how we can help cause less damage.
One of the solutions could be one of the many mobile phone recycling schemes in place, mobile operator O2 now sends out prepaid recycling bags with their new handsets for contract customers to send their old mobile phones back. Companies like FoneBak take old mobile phones and are able to salvage components such as copper and gold in order for them to be melted down and reused. Some other companies and charities send old mobile phones to developing countries.
This initiative is incredibly valuable considering that in the UK alone 1,712 mobile phones are upgraded every hour, meaning that there are potentially 41,000 mobile phones gathering dust in a desk drawer somewhere which could be put to good use. This waste is made all the more outstanding when mobile phones are designed to function for in excess of ten years, where we tend to begin lusting after the latest model after just 18 months.
Aside from recycling the mobile phones and donating them this year a new exhibit at the London Science Museum showcased the possible future environmentally friendly applications of our old mobile phones. One such suggestion was for mobile phone circuit boards to be replaced with sheets of lasagne or chicken feathers!
One stand out offering from researchers at Warwick University was a Motorola handset that included metals that broke themselves down for recycling and contained sunflower seed within the cover that meant when the mobile phone was no longer of any use it could simply be planted in the garden.
A company calling itself "Green Mobile" is a fledgling mobile phone operator which will plant five trees for every mobile phone subscription, as well as donating 6% of its turnover to charities, as well as the option to keep your current mobile phone or one of their cheap mobile phones.
So whilst people are still coming round to taking steps towards being more environmentally friendly it's clear that the mobile phone industry is taking steps towards being more eco-friendly for whenever the customer decides to "go green"
