Samsung's corny phone answers the eco call

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 18 June 2008 07:14

Your IT - Mobility

Green is the new black as far as the ICT industry is concerned, and it's spreading to mobile phones with Samsung bringing out a handset made from corn. The new phone is part of a trend to make handsets more eco-friendly.

Samsung's first efforts in this regard will appear this month in Korea and China.

The W510 for the Korean market is in this regard the more advanced of the two. Instead of using plastics manufactured from oil (you've seen what's happened to petrol prices - it just takes longer for skyrocketing crude prices to work through to the cash register for other products), the company has chosen a bio-plastic derived from corn.

While corn is a renewable resource, concerns have been expressed about its diversion from food supplies to produce vehicle fuels and other products.

Another welcome feature of the W510 is the absence of heavy metals such as lead, mercury and cadmium.

Also new from Samsung is the F268. To be sold in China, this handset features an alarm to indicate when it is fully charged to avoid wasting power, and its accessories contain no brominated flame retardants (BFRs) or PVC.

BFRs are widely used in the electronics industry. The compounds accumulate in the food chain and in the human body, and are thought to present heath risks. Their use has been banned or restricted in some jurisdictions.

What are other phone companies doing to msake their products eco-friendlier? See page 2.