San Diego GreenLife

by Laura Silver

Motorola's Solar Concept Phone "Eclipse Intuit"

If you wanted to build a greener cell phone, where would you start? The materials? The power source? The profits? The sperm and the bees?

All would be legitimate targets for change.

Besides the well-known issues with oil-based plastics, cell phones, pagers and personal computers use capacitors coated in Coltan, (short for Columbite-Tantalite), a metallic ore found primarily in the (rather ironically named) Democratic Republic of Congo.

Coltan is so coveted by mining interests based in the U.S., Belgium and Japan that it fuels the ongoing civil war in Congo, a war that has claimed more than 4 million lives. Rebel armies, government-backed forces, and “legitimate” mining interests all compete at the point of a gun for coltan, gold, and the other mineral resources of this region.

National parks are deforested, gorilla habitat slashed, children work underground with hammers and chisels for two to three dollars a day — so that we can talk to the air in a grocery-store aisle… and I can write about it on my laptop.

So how do we mitigate any of these materials issues? One way is to recycle old cell phones, pagers and computers, so their coltan can be reused, reducing the need for further mining. Also consider whether you really need that flashy new phone model if your current one is working just fine.

You can donate old cell phones to Eco-Cell, a company that has partnered with zoos, (including the San Diego Zoo and The Wild Animal Park), to return part of their profits to the Dian Fossey Gorilla fund. Just specify you want your donation to benefit gorilla conservation.

The world’s largest producer of coltan-based transistors, Kemet, requires its suppliers to provide certification that their coltan came from regions outside the Congo and neighboring areas. This could provide a way to generate conflict-free or gorilla-safe certification.

How Do I Charge Thee? Let Me Count the Ways

Solar/light-powered and light-recharging cell phones are in development in China, and by some American-based companies, to address issues with power use. China is home to 400 million cell phones, so light-charging and longer-lived batteries can create a significant energy savings.

There is one model on the Chinese market now, the HTW S116 Solar Mobile Phone, which can charge off any light source, (even a candle — though slowly), and has a Li-Ion battery that lasts 2.5 times longer than standard cell-phone batteries.

Phones for the U.S. market are not as far along, though Motorola has just patented a model with a screen that recharges it in direct sunlight. It is not on the market yet, however.

In the meantime you can consider one of the Solio Universal Solar Chargers as your primary or backup charging station. They charge both cell phones and iPods from direct sunlight, a computer’s USB port, and/or from the grid, depending on the model you choose

Where Do All the Profits Go?

Another way to green your cell-phone use is to consider where the profits from your provider go. Earth Tones is a wireless phone, internet, and long-distance provider that donates all of its profits to environmental causes. Their rates are quite competitive and you may even be able to use your existing phone.

The Sperm and the Bees

Cell phone use has been linked to both health problems in humans, and ecological issues such as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) in bees, which affects not only the bees themselves, but the pollination of most of our major food crops worldwide.

In humans, studies have linked the radiation, radio frequencies, and electro-magnetic energy produced by cell phones to altered brain activity, cancer, and reproductive disorders — including decreased quality and motility in sperm among men who wear cell phones on their belts.

While the jury is still out on most of the studies — at least in part because cell phone use is relatively new and long-term effects have yet to be determined — concerns cannot be dismissed out of hand. Limiting the use of your cell phone, and storing it off your body can reduce your exposure to possibly unhealthy effects.

Cell phones have become nearly ubiquitous, from the high rise to the outback. They are not likely to go away. But there are things we can do now to be greener cell-phone users, and to decrease the impact of that use on everything from politics to our own health. These changes are worth the effort.

Resources:

Green Living Ideas: “Eco Friendly Cell Phones”

Pulitzer Center on Conflict: “Congo’s Bloody Coltan”

Eco-Cell Recycling Centers in CA

Solio Universal Solar Charger Kit

Earth Tones, The Environmental Internet and Phone Company: