Building the green mobile phone

LG and Nokia aren't unique in their efforts to rid their phones of environmentally damaging materials, according to John Walls, vice president of public affairs for CTIA. He said it's safe to assume that no new handset coming to the market has hazardous chemicals in it. The top five handset makers are all RoHS-complaint, meaning their phones contain no more than the agreed upon levels of lead, cadmium, mercury and other harmful elements.

"Each of them recognizes the social responsibility they have to developing more environmentally friendly products," Walls said. "They are spending a great deal of their resources on making that happen and possible to offer in large scale."

MOVING FROM CONCEPT TO REALITY

The removal of harmful materials is a big step in the right direction, but it's not a complete solution for environmentally friendly products. While it's clear, as Walls points out, that handset makers are eager to embrace the green movement, it's less certain how much they can actually do. Concept products that encompass a vendor's best green efforts have been shown at nearly every wireless show, but most are meant to inspire or raise awareness rather than be mass produced and sold. Two handsets that are on the market today include the Motorola Renew, developed through a partnership with the Carbonfund and claimed to be the first carbon-neutral mobile phone, and the LG KP108E, made out of biodegradable corn plastics. LG's Todd said it's both not realistic and impossible to achieve a zero carbon footprint in the complete lifecycle of a product.

"However, we continue an attempt to lower it at our very best," he added. "As we announced at CES 2009, one of our goals is mid- to long-term CO2 reduction. Currently we are in the process of reducing CO2 excretion in the products' usage stages and during the manufacturing process."

Nokia's green handset on the market, the 3100 Evolve comes with bio-plastic covers, a compact, recycled and recyclable package, eco software and an energy efficient charger. The company introduced the Evolve at the end of 2007, dubbing it the green phone, although that was later called into question by Greenpeace. Another Nokia handset, Remade, also introduced in 2007, was designed using recycled materials – metals from up-cycled aluminum cans, plastic drink bottles and old car tires. Inside the phone are environmentally friendly printed electronics as well as energy-saving graphics on the display.

The Remade isn't a commercial reality today, but David Conrad, head of environment for Nokia North America, said that in the near future a device built on reused engines and materials is a distinct possibility. He emphasized that the Remade is a neat concept phone, but it's just intended to illustrate principles the handset maker can apply throughout its product lines. Like the Remade, Samsung's Blue Earth solar phone, a mock-up of which was shown at Mobile World Congress, includes eco-packaging and built-in energy savings through solar power charging, techniques intended to be applied throughout its entire product line.

"We aren't trying to generate a one-off green phone," Conrad said. "We are trying to learn from it. Using recyclable aluminum uses 70% less energy than mining and refining it. That's huge for a billion people out there. What we'll see instead of Nokia churning out Remades will be Nokia embedding the learning from Remade into the design guys' world to start to be a part of other devices."

THE LIMITATIONS OF GOING GREEN

While the lessons these phones provide are applicable across the board, can handset makers actually drive the green concept even further? When it comes to the process of building the phone, the answer may be no. Finding 100% recycled materials to use in phone production is the first significant roadblock, according to Mike Newman, vice president of electronics sustainability firm ReCellular.

"In theory, copper is copper and gold is gold, and the metals that go into the circuitry are just that," Newman said. "Now, in standard recycling practices, not all the materials in the phone actually end up getting recycled. When you are smelting the metals, there are residual plastics and other things in there that get consumed in the smelting process."