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News :: Environment |
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New Cell Phone Covers Grow Into Flowers |
Current rating: 0 |
by Reuters via Joe Futrelle
Email: futrelle (nospam) shout.net (verified) |
06 Dec 2004
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[Note: most landfills are managed, out of necessity, in a way that prevents anything but grass from growing on them. -JF] |
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (Reuters) -- Scientists said on Monday they have come up with a cell phone cover that will grow into a sunflower when thrown away.
Materials company Pvaxx Research & Development, at the request of U.S.-based mobile phone maker Motorola (MOT.N), has come up with a polymer that looks like any other plastic, but which degrades into soil when discarded.
Researchers at the University of Warwick in Britain then helped to develop a phone cover that contains a sunflower seed, which will feed on the nitrates that are formed when the polyvinylalcohol polymer cover turns to waste.
"It's a totally biodegradable and non-toxic plastic," said Pvaxx spokesman Peter Morris.
"This is the first product that we've made public. We're working with blue chip companies and will introduce several products next year," he said, adding it would be used in electronics, horticulture, ammunition and household cleaning.
The company's new plastic, which was created over the past five years but was in development for longer, can be rigid or flexible in shape.
Some 650 million mobile phones will be sold this year, and most of them will be thrown away within two years, burdening the environment with plastics, heavy metals and chemicals. A biodegradable cover can offer some relief for nature, Warwick University said.
Motorola said it had not yet decided if it would introduce a model built with the new plastic, and that it would take until at least the second quarter of 2005 to get a commercial product.
"(To improve) the quality (of the plastic) is something we're working on," said Motorola project manager Peter Shead, adding the new plastic may be used in snap-on covers first.
Many young consumers buy cheap and interchangeable plastic covers to personalize their standard phone. |
See also:
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/12/06/cellphonecover.sunflower.reut/index.html
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Copyright by the author. All rights reserved. |
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Re: New Cell Phone Covers Grow Into Flowers |
by gehrig
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
06 Dec 2004
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It's about time that _someone_ addressed the cell-phone sunflower problem.
@%< |
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Let's See Them Do This |
by ML
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
06 Dec 2004
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The real trick is going to be getting the heavy metals to grow flowers.
This is sort of like putting a happy face bandaid on a gunshot wound to the head, as far as helping the environment. But in the Bush II era, this is probably about all we can expect corporations to do to "help" the environment.
I'd be more impressed if Motorola and the other cell-phone pushers announced a plan to recycle every cell phone appropriately at the end of its life. They should include a prepaid mailer with each new phone so that the user can send it in for recycling at no additional cost when it breaks or becomes obsolete or provide dropoff boxes at phone dealers. |
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Interesting |
by ML
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
06 Dec 2004
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I was reading the News-Gazette this evening and lo and behold there's an article (Section D, page 4) titled "E-trash Recycling Still in Infancy." It turns out that Motorola started including a mailer in its cellphones bought online in the last four months. It also offers a prepaid postage label that you can get from their website that allows you to recycle an old phone from any manufacturer.
How come we didn't already know this? While stating they are engaged in PR efforts to encourage recycling, their spokesperson admitted "We weren't trying to drive a lot of traffic" to the website.
It is speculated in the article that "manufacturers don't have the right incentives now..." In the old days, before Bush II's gutting of government regulation in favor of allowing manufacturers to basically self-regulate themselves when it comes to the enviornment, employee health and safety, labor realtions, etc, that kind of incentive was called the Law.
It would be very easy to pass such a law. In fact, in Europe, it IS the law that all new appliances and electronic goods include plans to recycle them before sale.
Here in the US, corporations get to posture in advertising and press releases about what they're doing for the environment, but Motorola's partial and selective approach to its nearly hidden recycling program is a good example of why recycling as it is currently done by Motorola will not make much difference. If it was the law here, Motorola would have to back up its words with real action. |
