Out with the Old

A friendly reminder to recycle those old consumer electronics the right way this holiday. If you got some new tech, be sure to dispose of your old cell phones, laptops, gaming systems, etc appropriately.

The Consumer Electronics Association offers these suggestions:

Turn in the Old: Most major manufacturers and retailers offer recycling programs as well as lots of communities.

Pay it Forward: Donate your unwanted electronics to charity. Visit CollectiveGood or Close the Gap for more details.

Protect Your Identity: Be sure to erase your personal information from these devices before recycling. Check with Symantec, Norton or your manufacturer for help.

Visit MyGreenElectronics.org for more tips.

A greener cellphone

Samsung’s new Reclaim is touted as the first eco-friendly cell phone for the US market. Its hardware casing is made from corn-derived bio plastics. Its innovative charger consumes twelve times less power than Energystar recommendations and its packaging is 70% recyclable. Also,the user manual is virtual with no bulky paper version included in the package.

The phone itself as a full QWERTY keyboard, 2 Megapixel camera/camcorder, one-touch access to social networks and calendars and email.

Available in Earth Green and Ocean Blue, the phone is available August 16 for under $50 (with rebates) and Sprint is donating two dollars to the Nature Conservancy for each purchase.

Universal Mobile Phone Charger on the Horizon

The mobile phone industry has finally decided to create a universal phone charger by 2012, according to GSMA, an industry organization.

Currently, chargers can be brand or phone specific, generating more than 51,000 tons of waste as consumers get new phones that are incompatible. For more information on recycling phones, click here.

Another aim is to create an energy-efficient charger to reduce stand-by or “vampire” energy consumption by 50%. The group wants to create the “UCS” or universal charging solution  to use Micro-USB for charging.

Among the companies involved in this initiative are LG, Motorola, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, and T-Mobile.

Now if we can just get the printer companies to standardize those blasted ink cartridges.