We love the Earth, and apparently so do Sprint and Samsung. The two companies have just introduced the
Reclaim, a super-eco cellphone made from 80 percent recycled materials. The device -- a stout, sliding, QWERTY message-friendly model -- is constructed from "bio-plastic" materials made from corn, is free of PVC, and mostly free of BFR (brominated flame retardants)... which are apparently pretty bad. The phone also has a 2 megapixel camera, stereo Bluetooth, can accept microSD cards (we assume) up to 32GB, and has Sprint Navigation onboard. The packaging will be eco-friendly as well, as it's constructed from 70 percent recycled materials and printed with soy-based ink. The carrier will be selling the Reclaim in "Earth Green" or "Ocean Blue" come August 16th for $50 (after a $30 instant rebate and $50 mail-in rebate) with a two-year contract. Additionally, $2 of that profit will be funneled to the Nature Conservancy's Adopt an Acre program. Finally, a phone that goes with your Prius.
posted Aug 6th 2009 9:53AM
Now we can finally do a more interesting experiment of cellphones making popcorn.
it would be cool in you could "recycle" it in your microwave.
Is the charging dock called the Cornhole?
no, but you are a cornhole.
Wow, way to totally kill the comedy, commander buzzkill.
corn-blimey!
I thought you said Cornfed from Duckman...
For you city folk out there:
This is made of the same type of corn that is used for making animal feed, ethanol, corn syrup, corn flakes, and other good products.
Pop Corn comes from a different variety of the crop. As well as sweet corn- what you eat from the can (which is a pity- Sweet Corn is Ripe here in Iowa).
That's pretty cool.
They had me right up until "Sprint."
Looks like they could have worked at reducing their over packaging some...
Why does it need air holes? Does it come with a free hamster?
@ Smart People Play Tuba:
It damn well better
Maybe it's full of worms to aid in biodegrading it for us.
and how is the packaging made out of less recycled materials than the phone???
As an added benefit, if you get stranded somewhere you could eat the phone and the packaging to survive.
Yeah, but it's show in your feces.
xD had to say it.
so instead of throwing your phone out the window when you get mad, you eat it?
No, you just throw it out the window like normal but then can only fine you 20% of the littering fee.
That's pretty cool!
"all you have to do is heat it up!!!"
"they're eating her!
and now they gonna eat me!
OOOO MY GOOOOD!!!!!!"
Oh god, I have to say it.
This is waaaay too corny.
So is your joke.
*Insert Corny Joke Here*
Sweet now we can talk on cell phones instead of having reasonable food prices.
AGREED!!!
Ethanol production should stop also. It doesn't help the environment and if you care about carbon (which is not a pollutant), then ethanol has a bigger footprint.
Exactly! Like oil, which there's huge quantities to use while we transition to the future, instead of using it we decide to burn our food.
Typical cheap American worried more about money than the real issues at hand
@Jordan
huh? I don't think you understand.
It's a fact that the price of food in third world countries have more than double, even 4x the amount because of the subsidies for corn-based food. Even pasta in Italy has over doubled in price.
Now for some - it is a big deal that the price of food doubled. So who is the selfish ones here? The ones driving their bio-fuel cars with their pretentious attitudes - or the ones driving gasoline? You can't eat gas.
And I won't even bring up the increase in smog and decrease in air quality from Biofuels.
Corn isn't the only product used to make ethanol. In fact, it's very inefficient. Algae is a better alternative considering there are very quick generation times, and the algae doesn't need to be destroyed to create it. Oil is a finite source that's being quickly depleted, and batteries sit in landfills forever after their charges cycles are used up. Burning ethanol has a far less impact than either of those and once the process of making it becomes more refined, it should be exclusively used.
@Scuubs
Agreed- Ethanol through soy or algae = a workable and proven solution. Ethanol through corn = more expensive and polutive than gasoline while driving up food costs.
The only reason corn-based ethanol is even around (and it's really only around in the U.S.) is because the large and powerful corn farming lobby figured out they can get paid more money that way than if people just eat the stuff. It's a rubbish fuel, as previous commenters explained.
Anyway, how is a phone 'made from corn' recycled, exactly? Had the corn been _used_ before? Is it, in fact, made of poop?
And - soy-based ink? That would be soy, the crop for which large swathes of rainforest are being merrily chopped down around the world?
Thank god some of you people make sense.
your comment and replies (sans-jacob) show me that not all tech people are moronic über-liberals that think anything with buzz words attached to it are good.
There is nothing environmentally friendly about this phone, recycling and, as you say before, corn based ethanol cause more pollution then they save.
If your worried about CO2 your better off not recycling.
If your worried about land-pollution (its not a buzz topic right now like it was in the early 90s so no one cares) then you can recycle.
Either way ethanol is a waste of time.
so you prefer to keep using fossil fuels to make your plastic things?
note: about 4% of the world's annual oil production (roughly 84.5 million barrels per day) is used as the core ingredient in plastic, and another 4% is used for the energy to transform the oil into plastic.
Mmm... Radioactive corn...
Prius? That's a lunchbox!
So, you're saying this thing is INCREDIBLY FLAMMABLE? Thanks, but I'd rather eat my corn than make a cellphone out of it.
So they're Reclaiming a healthy environment?
I'm tired.
anyone watch King of Corn? not that renewable plastic is a bad thing, but jesus. corn is in everything.
Sooo....now you can call tell tell everyone you are starving?
so this phone may do fine in terms of sales, but chalk it up to the qwerty, NOT the eco bullshit
A couple of restaurants in the area are using the corn based plastic cups. Really interesting because you cant tell the difference. Its great to see this technology expand into other products. With cell phones being so disposable it only makes sense that companies are going this route, I only wish all plastic products would go this route.
It is all a lovely idea, in theory, but if some of these PLA (polylactic acid) based plastics get into the regular PET recycling stream, they turn to goo and the whole batch is unrecyclable.
So, when we're done with the phone we can just bury it in the ground, right?
Wow---this is too funny. DirecTV was giving me a line just two days ago that the reason they send 5 year old boxes to new subscribers is to cut down on the amount of used boxes going to landfills (I'm sure it has nothing to do with cutting costs on their bottom line!). I was thinking until they make receivers out of corn, wheat-grass, or some other biodegradable material they're going to wind up in landfills regardless--then I read this. I'm now going to request all my electronics be made out of peanut brittle! Woooo hooooooo!
does it blend?
Yes -- resulting in the tastiest polenta you're ever had.
Corn again? For the good of man kind (specially Americans), corn lobbyists should all die.
its pronounced "corm".
I like corm.
Unfortunately, the economics of using corn for fuel and plastics is artificial, stemming from subsidies. Plus, by competing for corn with food uses, the cost of food is now being driven up. The solution is to use crops with a much lower carbon footprint (corn is quite bad) or to use the scrap portions of the corn plant (just as cellulosic ethanol processes are trying to do). If we ended corn subsidies originally designed to protect the industry when supply once outstripped demand (and now provided almost exclusively to large corporate farms rather than to any individual farmers) the necessary shifts would happen on their own.
Actually, you are only partially correct. While food prices have steadily risen and maintained high levels, commodity prices (especially corn) have cut to about half of what they were last year. So corn prices are down 50%, food prices remain high. Hmm...That might just point to something else contributing to those high prices. Also, prices for corn (adjusted for inflation) have really barely risen in the past several decades, despite expanded use for ethanol and other products. Yes, subsides cause distortions and should be eliminated. However, corn subsidies (check the ewg database) account for 5-10 bn a year, depending on which programs you include in the total. We just got done handing out over 1 trillion to all sorts of industries, effectively subsidising them. Look at cash for clunkers right now for example. Who knows...something to think about.
still wouldn't work, the amount of energy Ethanol yields still doesn't come close to the amount of energy it takes to refine it into a usable form.
note: about 4% of the world's annual oil production (roughly 84.5 million barrels per day) is used as the core ingredient in plastic, and another 4% is used for the energy to transform the oil into plastic.
also note: fossil fuels are and have been for a very long time heavily subsidized
Isn't it running Android os in this photo?
Nah, standard Samsung UI with Sprint One Click, same one that's in the Rant. QWERTY dumbphone.
I prefer my cellphones colored Carbon Black.
This is a gimmick, because plastic is made from corn for years, so therefore nothing new her to see.
If you eat this phone. Will it look like corn or a cell phone when it comes out? My bet is on corn.
You know what would be even better for the environment - keeping your existing cell-phone.
The only problem is that "green" is not enough. Look at the Toyota Prius and the original Honda Insight. The Insight was first to market and got better gas mileage (by quite a bit) but it didn’t sell very well because it didn't meet the most users' needs (2 seats only).
Same thing here. Great to have a green phone but where phones are concerned, particularly "smart phones", the user experience sells the phone. So if the phone is responsive and has a good user experience, then "green" will help sell it to the masses and make it successful. If isn't fast and usable, then "green" will help sell it to a small niche and that's it.
You're right but I find this oddly appealing. Maybe because I was brought up by hippies. Hippies would have loved that phone.
I am waiting for the model that takes a potato instead of batteries though.
I know no one is going to read this but it is more eco friendly to buy a used cellphone b/c then the environmental cost of making it has already been paid for once. Same goes for the Prius. It is better to buy a used 90's model Civic b/c the carbon emitted to make the Prius is so high that over the life of the car it is better to buy used.
A tech blog saying "We love the earth..." that made me chuckle.
While I kind of understand the mechanics of mail-in rebates, I still consider them the dumbest US invention ever.
Yeah, but what about the charger? is it USB based so I can reuse it for other devices?
oh and won't it drive up price of corn and in turn drive up food commodity prices? look what corn-based ethanol to food prices a few years back.
I have a feeling they won't make enough of these to change corn prices.
a mobile made out of porn????
OMG,
oh wait, corn
Cut down a few more rain forests to plant more corn and soy and put food prices up in the developing world causing mass starvation - Greens - You make me sick!
I want all gadgets to follow this lead and want them to start back in the last millennium when it first became possible
i had a corn pen in my pocket once and when it got warm it was about as flexible as string cheese, dont know if thats a feature i want in a phone....
Seeing that this is made from Corn does it taste like Fritos?
HEMP! They should make ALL gadgets made out of WEED MAN!
duuuuude bro thats the coolest thing ive heard all day man. whenever ur phone breaks man, you can just smoke it...right man?
totally agree with you about hemp plastic: http://www.hempplastic.com/newSite/hp_aboutplastics_fordcar.htm
the best part bro... is your gonna feel great getting rid of your old HEMP phone after you inhale it!! LOVE LAUGH LIVE!
Sacrafices MUST be made for the future of mankind. A man who does not care about his childrens adult future and his grandchildren adult future is not a good father. BTW not having a LUXURIOUS lifestyle (regular vacations to exotic locals, having highttech items in your house, a super nice car or truck, etc) DOES Not mean we are suffering as a people. LOL people who believe greed is a way of life are destined for damnation.
Not that I am a Christian. I believe in the soul and morality though. ;)
Now when your phone rings you have a new expression you can say:
"Must have been that corn I didn't eat, I'll check my voicemail later"
Does it have EV-DO?
Made from Corn? Lovely.
Somewhere in the world 10,000 people are dying of starvation for each cellphone sold, and 100,000 are struggling to put food on the table.
Making cellphones from Food....Why?
WOW 100k out of what 7-8 billion people? LOL I am sorry but no matter WHAT we do someone is gonna suffer. SOMEONE is gonna pay the price for progression. Although I will not say THIS is truly progression. But it is an attempt to not make the landfills a little bigger. This is not FUTURAMA. we cannot just gather up the world trash and put it on top of a rocket and then call it a day.
It is with ANY advancement. SOMEONE gets the short end of the stick. Should we cower away from anything? Should we live like the ancient native americans? Tell me how we can POSSIBLY stay as we are for the rest of our days without some FORWARD thinking that helps maintain this lifestyle with what resources we lose over time?
Ryan your partially right, about the short end of the stick thing, but not in this case, using Corn as energy is not effective, it is not progress, and doesn't really help anyone. It just got pushed through because the Corn Lobby in DC is so huge, and somehow got it put into people's minds that Corn is the future of energy.
You know what they use to refine corn into usable ethanol? (hint...it's petro based power) Based on the amount of energy (growing, harvesting, refining) it takes to produce Ethanol, do you know how much energy it gives back? (its less then half)
if thats progress you can shoot me, now, it's politics and propaganda, not progress.
note: about 4% of the world's annual oil production (roughly 84.5 million barrels per day) is used as the main ingredient in plastic, and another 4% is used for the energy to transform the oil into plastic.
Battery type: Lithium-Ethanol
Here's my understanding. It's made from 80% recycled materials and it's made of corn.
Is... is it recycled corn? Gross.
Let me get this straight - phone, 80% of it is made of recycled material, box 70%????? Who is the genius that is making the boxes? Why dont they make the box out the same material the phone is made out of? Seems like a 10% savings to me.
I am green but dont like the color green!
I'll wait for Pop Corn
Motorola beat them to the punch on an eco-phone..
...but is the corn it's made from Monsanto?
good question because if it is then it is not at all corn based, it would be made from a deviously patented possibly highly injurious manufactured element
Oscar Meyer introduces the Squeal - a cellphone made from bologna
dammit! now I'll have to dump twice as much used motor oil down the storm drains to make up for all the priuses and eco-phones out there
Beautiful packaging!
Warning: I once bought clothes hangers that were made out of this same corn-based plastic stuff. I had a suit hanging in my back window on a typical Midwest late Spring/early Summer day and the hanger lost its shape, causing my suit to fall and get all wrinkly. Fortunately the hanger didn't actually melt like butter, but I'm not sure this phone would fare very well in similar conditions!
Why can't all phones be made of recyclable and/or Earth-friendly materials? The concept in itself is cool all the way until you hear the phone is a simple candy bar (refering to the Motorola Renew; at least this one's a QWERTY texter).
Finally, the activist EcoNazis are no longer being ignored! Thank you Samsung & Sprint. You will be bashed slightly less by activist clowns with nothing to do.
This seems pretty cool. Its more of a girl's phone but I still think it looks cool. Sort of reminds me of the lg lotus with its unique design.