Brits not sold on eco handsets
Price, battery life more important than greenness
Several handset manufacturers have already started marketing eco-friendly mobile phones, but a new survey’s discovered that only a small minority of Brits are actually sold on so-called eco phones.
Opinium Research – on behalf of website Moneysupermarket – quizzed 2088 UK adults earlier this year and discovered that a whopping 88 per cent couldn't careless about the eco-friendliness of their mobile phone.
Just under half – 49 per cent – said they’d refuse to pay more for a handset just because it was made from recycled materials. The body of Samsung’s E200, for example, is made entirely from “bio-plastic” extracted from corn.
Those questioned admitted that a phone’s purchase price, battery life and durability were their top concerns. Some 13 per cent went as far as admitting that they wouldn’t buy a mobile phone if it was made from recycled materials.
However, the study revealed that many simply don’t know how hazardous a mobile phone can actually be to the environment if not disposed of properly.
For example, 39 per cent either thought that phones don’t have any hazardous materials inside them or admitted that they’d no idea if phones do. ®
COMMENTS
NOC's.....
The devices are themselves only the tip of what is an enormous iceberg.
I work for a 'telecoms supplier' and spend a lot of time in server rooms. These things chew through power like water over the edge of Niagara.
The 'typical' purple clad server is geared up to run at between 500 and 1000 watts, depending on the Config.
Two or three of these in one cabinet, plus the drives, plus the back ups, plus the air con' units, plus the……
Assume 50 cabinets per NOC [a round if conservative figure] all running 24 hours and one plus, in a small bungalow in Weston Super Mere powering a small Finnish mobile is, in the grand scheme of things, irrelevant.
What is really needed is some sort of joined up way of producing the power in the first place, using all the different 'green' technologies -wind, hydro, solar et al-, having people generate some / most / of their domestic needs through their own green generation -again, solar, wind etc- thereby encouraging users to 'value' the power they consumer by understanding more about how it is made.
There also needs to be a drive the Government UK to force Britain PLC to start actually making some of this green technology, not just importing German windmills and Swiss turbines…...
WEEE
Aren't mobile phones covered by the WEEE regulations? So don't the mobile phone cos have to pay for recycling/treating old phones anyway?
Solar handset
Samsung and LG showed fairly reasonable solar panel equipped handsets - that would be useful as it could trickle charge constantly during the day - solving one of the two issues here, battery life.
It is sad people today are not as ethical or concerned as in the 70s and 80s. Back then, shows like Blue Peter encouraged charity and creativity, while today, it is self promotion, celebs and victim mentality. I know this is not the forum for such sentiments, but every day spent in the UK gets more depressing. Sadly, I'm probably alone on this so expect to be flamed.
RE: “bio-plastic” sucks
We have "Compostable flatware" were I work, and the things are crap, the forks will bend if you look at them funny, the spoons will do this sort of Salvador Dali thing when put in close proximity to soup, and the knives are so dull that by the time you get through your food it has decomposed already, regular old vodka will burn right through the cups.
So other than the case, there is nothing they can make 'eco-friendly', the most they could do is use inferior lead-free components and solder.
Cold hard facts
We're in a recession. Money is tight. Work is drying up. Unemployment rising. Fuel and food prices rising fast. Every penny counts.
The time when the marketing muppets could push any old crap on us at extortionate prices just because it is 'green' or 'organic' has past.
I *will* buy "green" as long as I don't have to pay the obviously inflated prices for inferior goods that have been the trademark of the greenie marketplace to date.
