Next time you need a new phone, you don’t need to go to your wireless carrier’s store and spend a lot of money on a product that is not eco-friendly. Instead, go to Zendoo. Zendoo is an online store that sells used cellphones. Their mission is to reduce, reuse, and then recycle. Zendoo purchases used cell phones and then sells them on their website. With this sort of business, there is less of a demand for brand new cell phones which require virgin materials and lots of energy, perfectly good cell phones get reused, and broken cell phones get recycled in the most proper way to prevent harmful toxins from entering our environment. Zendoo cell phones are even shipped in recycled packaging with eco-friendly soy ink print. For more about Zendoo’s environmental efforts, check out their page called Cell Phones and the Environment.

They offer cellphones from all major service carriers for a fraction of the price (from LG and Nokia to iPhones). Each cell phone has a ranking system that lets you know whether the phone is worth your money or not, and each cell phone is tested by at least three employees to ensure customer satisfaction. The best feature is certainly the fact that you don’t need to sign a contract to purchase these phones. Once you pay, the phone is yours: no strings attached. Zendoo even has a 100% customer satisfaction guarantee.

The Motorola MOTO W233 Renew is Motorola’s first green cell phone. Yes, it is green in color, but also quite eco-friendly. The Renew is claimed to be the first certified carbon free cell phone on the market. Through on an alliance with Carbonfund.org, Motorola is able to offset the amount of carbon required to manufacturer, distribute, and operate the phone. 

In addition, the phone comes with a pre-paid postage envelope for you to recycle your old cell phone, and contains 100% recycled housing. All packaging is made out of recycled material, including the user’s guide. The battery is free of hazardous materials, has a longer life to require less charging, and the charger has less of a phantom effect. For more information on what Motorola has done to make this phone “greener,” check out their ECO FACTS.

We are excited to see some changes are being made in the cell phone industry, considering how many cell phones are sold, and how often people replace thier perfectly functioning cell phones with new ones. In addition, several cell phone giants are greening their cell phones by using more recycled materials and even solar panels on their phones. Companies such as those in the computer industry are even using the method of carbon offsetting for their computers such as Fujitsu in Japan.

Need an extra incentive to reuse or recycle your old cell phone or iPod? This is the best one we can find. You can trade in your old cell phone or Apple iPod for an Amazon.com gift certificate with the Flipswap Trade-Ins program. This program will first try to reuse the phone or its parts, and it if is not at all functional, they will recycle the product and plant a tree for every phone recycled. Amazon.com and Flipswap Trade-Ins meet ISO 9001 and 14001 certified recycle standards, and will therefore make this trade-in as green as possible.

All you need to do is value your device  (our LG Dare phone is currently valued as a $97 Amazon.com gift certificate), send your device and confirmation (shipping is free to you, paid by Amazon.com) and in about three weeks you will receive your Amazon.com gift card via e-mail (saves on paper)! If your phone or iPod is so damaged that it retains no value, you are still being green by recycling your cell phone or iPod.

Tips:

• When sending your device, make sure you do not waste too much paper on packaging. Try using recycled products!
• Be honest when filling out the valuation form. The valuation form is only an estimate. You will receive a gift certificate based on their review of your device.
• Send multiple devices at once. You can even include accessories. This will require less shipping over time.

For other ways to recycle your cell phones and iPods check out these articles: How to Recycle Your Old Apple Products and How to Recycle Your Old Cell Phones. To learn how to package your cell phone correctly check out this article: Green Your Packaging.

In today’s society we’re so dependent on cell phones that most of us can’t image life without them. Have you ever been in a situation where you forgot to charge your cell phone the night before and it dies when you most need it? Strapya World is selling, for about $20, a solar panel charger strap. It looks like a key chain and is considerably small. Right now this product is only shipped from Japan. We hope that someday it is made locally to make a more eco-friendly shipment.

The device can be charged up to 500 times, it only weighs 40 grams and will give you a maximum talk time of 40 minutes. Their product page shows a list of the compatible cell phones.

Let’s hope other companies will follow the lead and improve this device as well as make it available worldwide. Maybe someday this could be our everyday charger, instead of a back-up.

For information on cell phones that have solar panels built into them, check out our post about Solar Powered Cell Phones.

[source]

Believe it or not, there are tons of organizations that will help you recycle your used cell phones, computers, and rechargable batteries.  Your used devices can be reused by various charities, or recycled to make new parts. Since we cannot list every single one, we have compiled a list of convenient ways to recycle.
more…

LG Electronics is bringing green to mobile phones. To be released in green concious Europe by the end of this year, LG has created an eco-friendly cell phone made of recycled products with a solar panel battery cover. The panel can convert solar energy into electricity just by leaving the phone in the sun. Ten minutes of solar energy will provide for a 3 minute phone conversation, which is great for emergencies. Leaving the phone out for longer periods will negate the necessity for charging devices.

Samsung also plans to release their eco-friendly phone (blue earth) made of recycled water bottles by the end of the year.

Making the planet greener one cell phone at a time…

Source