NEC to make eco-friendly corn phones

Thanks to NEC's tireless quest to make sure everything can be made out of corn, we can now add cellphones to the list along with our corny CD-Rs, Blu-ray discs and, of course, laptops. They've partnered with Japanese firm Unitika to develop a corn-based plastic for mobile phones that should find its way into NEC-manufactured cellphones by next June.

[strider_mt2k @ Dec 19th 2005 1:23AM]

Watch Bill Mawr come out against high fructose cell phones now...
Just kidding, you rock Bill!

[mephistox @ Dec 19th 2005 1:23AM]

in response, I am now going to come out with a line of nuclear cellphones :)

[Samuel Lago @ Dec 19th 2005 1:23AM]

What is the point of a corn-based plastic phone? Does it mean that it will biodegrade? what exactly are the advantages?

[Ben @ Dec 19th 2005 1:23AM]

Millions of phones get trashed every year. Governments and unelected psuedo governments like the EU (bit of social comment there) have decided to make the producers take responsibility for the waste, kind of like enforced recycling. In Europe it's called Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment or, and I'm not making this up, "WEEE".

According to the UK Environment Agency's web site: "Producers are responsible for financing the collection, treatment, recycling and recovery of WEEE." Well, good for them. The regulations should go into affect this summer.

So NEC and others are looking at ways to reduce that burden. One way is to make a phone out of biodegradable parts and hopefully reduce the bill but I'm sure another reason for NEC's effort is just to try to make good PR.

[zib r. @ Dec 19th 2005 1:23AM]

mmmmmm....now I can put butter and salt on my phone...yum yum!(^.^)

[happy gilmore @ Dec 19th 2005 1:23AM]

so when i'm finished using my phone, i can put it in the microwave and pop it, right?

[hiros @ Dec 19th 2005 1:23AM]

In Japan alone, over 60 million cellphones were desposed in a year. That was 5 years ago (news source was 'Japan Times' I think). This number can be bigger today. Think about that. Cell phone made out of corn IS something. Yeah. Something. I don't know. Ask someone else. :P.

I always think I could make money by extracting gold and rare metals out of them.

[Jeremy Dunck @ Dec 19th 2005 1:23AM]

>I always think I could make money by extracting
>gold and rare metals out of them.

When buildings are torn down, crews gut the buildings to reclaim copper and similar materials. I am sure there is a market in reclaiming materials from electronics. The trick is to figure out how to do it at a cost lower than that of the materials recovered.

[b0mb0klat @ Dec 19th 2005 1:23AM]

good stuff as long as its not an excuse for using genetically engineered corn....

[lupinstel @ Dec 19th 2005 1:23AM]

I am allergic to corn, so I am screwed.

[Rocket Punch @ Dec 19th 2005 1:23AM]

MAN! I was excited for a few sec as I thought I read "porn phone"!!

[Kurukuru @ Jan 1st 2006 5:15AM]

sorry crazy thought just came over me ! I just imagined a field full of corn phones it would save farmers alot of money/time they would just get a ring when it is ready to pluck !