It might be a while before the world starts migrating towards “green handsets,” according to a recent study titled “Mobile Handset Green Initiatives,” by ABI Research that explores the issues surrounding the manufacture and recycling of environmentally friendly mobile handsets.
The study identifies key market players and discusses their green initiatives and concluded with the current regulatory requirements and other market conditions. It finds that mobile handset manufacturers are working to reduce the environmental footprints that their products leave throughout their lifecycles.
While the pressure of “going green” comes from different lobbies, their appetite for creating biodegradable and recyclable products from sustainable resources often fades when faced against economic considerations.
With regulatory pressures and corporate responsibility mandates pushing this move, the real impact will only be seen in the volume of handsets that come back through recycling programs, and in the amount of e-waste the industry leaves behind.
Mobile market vendors do have recycling programs, but less than 5 percent of the annual worldwide volume of handsets comes back through recycling or ethical disposal programs. Manufacturers are however phasing out toxic substances that have been legally banned and other substances known to threaten human health and the environment, albeit slowly.
According to ABI Research (News - Alert) director Kevin Burden, the firm’s research found that very few handset manufacturers – except those with the scale to do it economically, such as Samsung and Nokia – are highly motivated to produce lines of green phones.
“Instead, the effort is towards compliance and the trickling down of proven green elements throughout entire product lines,” Burden said.
This article says that mobile phones from recycled materials are still a few years away from reaching consumers’ hands, according to Nokia’s (News - Alert) environmental affairs unit, Markus Terho.
Terho says that the lack of availability of recycled materials in very large scale would delay the take off of such phones. He was optimistic that green phones will be offered in a few years, saying that recycled materials already accounted for 40 to 60 percent of the metal parts in Nokia’s current phones.
In August this year, Samsung Electronics released three environmentally friendly handsets, using “green” materials for their exteriors and recycled ones inside.
But Burden also said that one 2008 Nokia survey found that 76 percent of consumers are more likely to buy phones from companies they consider environmentally responsible.
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Anita B (News - Alert). is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Anita's articles, please visit her columnist page.Edited by
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