Several handset manufacturers have already started marketing eco-friendly mobile phones, but a new survey’s discovered that only a small minority of Brits are actually sold on so-called eco phones.
Opinium Research – on behalf of website Moneysupermarket – quizzed 2088 UK adults earlier this year and discovered that a whopping …
We're in a recession. Money is tight. Work is drying up. Unemployment rising. Fuel and food prices rising fast. Every penny counts.
The time when the marketing muppets could push any old crap on us at extortionate prices just because it is 'green' or 'organic' has past.
I *will* buy "green" as long as I don't have to pay the obviously inflated prices for inferior goods that have been the trademark of the greenie marketplace to date.
My only experience of “bio-plastic” is the potato tent pegs issued at Glastonbury last year. They were TOTAL CRAP. If you managed to get one in the ground without it snapping, the top would snap off as soon as there was a little gust of wind.
So I will not buy a phone made out of “bio-plastic” until it is well proven to be durable.
Nokia's online store tried to jump on that particular bandwagon by sellng the black N79 for exactly the same price as the white, and grey, but without a charger. "Be kind to the environment and use your existing one!" - and they'll donate £5 to charity. Never mind that the missing charger costs £15. So why not donate £15 to charity? In fact why not buy the handset for £40 less elsewhere and donate the money saved to the same charity that would only have received a paltry £5 if you'd bought from Nokia?
Because most mobile manufacturers see the eco-bandwagon as a smokescreen through which to rip people off, perhaps?
Well, we have grown cynical about all this "Green" stuff.
It just seems another marketing ploy to get us to buy more of their stuff.
Well how about the first problem is that if we ditch all our current "Environment destroying" phones to buy a new Eco one we are helping no one because someone has to then deal with all the waste from our old phones we just dumped.
Better to hold onto the old phone for now. Then wait until *All* phones are good to our planet.
We don't see the reason why an 'Eco' Handset should cost more than a normal one that does exactly the same thing, and are sick to death of marketing people telling us that the latest buzzword is so great we have to pay more for it.
The thing is made out of plastic and metal. It aint rice paper... it's going to stick around for a long time once it's dumped. Exactly the same is true for the 'Eco' ones.
Samsung and LG showed fairly reasonable solar panel equipped handsets - that would be useful as it could trickle charge constantly during the day - solving one of the two issues here, battery life.
It is sad people today are not as ethical or concerned as in the 70s and 80s. Back then, shows like Blue Peter encouraged charity and creativity, while today, it is self promotion, celebs and victim mentality. I know this is not the forum for such sentiments, but every day spent in the UK gets more depressing. Sadly, I'm probably alone on this so expect to be flamed.
We have "Compostable flatware" were I work, and the things are crap, the forks will bend if you look at them funny, the spoons will do this sort of Salvador Dali thing when put in close proximity to soup, and the knives are so dull that by the time you get through your food it has decomposed already, regular old vodka will burn right through the cups.
So other than the case, there is nothing they can make 'eco-friendly', the most they could do is use inferior lead-free components and solder.
The devices are themselves only the tip of what is an enormous iceberg.
I work for a 'telecoms supplier' and spend a lot of time in server rooms. These things chew through power like water over the edge of Niagara.
The 'typical' purple clad server is geared up to run at between 500 and 1000 watts, depending on the Config.
Two or three of these in one cabinet, plus the drives, plus the back ups, plus the air con' units, plus the……
Assume 50 cabinets per NOC [a round if conservative figure] all running 24 hours and one plus, in a small bungalow in Weston Super Mere powering a small Finnish mobile is, in the grand scheme of things, irrelevant.
What is really needed is some sort of joined up way of producing the power in the first place, using all the different 'green' technologies -wind, hydro, solar et al-, having people generate some / most / of their domestic needs through their own green generation -again, solar, wind etc- thereby encouraging users to 'value' the power they consumer by understanding more about how it is made.
There also needs to be a drive the Government UK to force Britain PLC to start actually making some of this green technology, not just importing German windmills and Swiss turbines…...
Register
Brits not sold on eco handsets
Several handset manufacturers have already started marketing eco-friendly mobile phones, but a new survey’s discovered that only a small minority of Brits are actually sold on so-called eco phones. Opinium Research – on behalf of website Moneysupermarket – quizzed 2088 UK adults earlier this year and discovered that a whopping …
This topic is closed for new posts.
Posted Thursday 9th April 2009 14:25 GMT
Eponymous Cowherd
Cold hard facts #
We're in a recession. Money is tight. Work is drying up. Unemployment rising. Fuel and food prices rising fast. Every penny counts.
The time when the marketing muppets could push any old crap on us at extortionate prices just because it is 'green' or 'organic' has past.
I *will* buy "green" as long as I don't have to pay the obviously inflated prices for inferior goods that have been the trademark of the greenie marketplace to date.
Posted Thursday 9th April 2009 14:25 GMT
Anonymous Coward
“bio-plastic” sucks #
My only experience of “bio-plastic” is the potato tent pegs issued at Glastonbury last year. They were TOTAL CRAP. If you managed to get one in the ground without it snapping, the top would snap off as soon as there was a little gust of wind.
So I will not buy a phone made out of “bio-plastic” until it is well proven to be durable.
Posted Thursday 9th April 2009 14:25 GMT
Donal Gavin
Who's fault is that #
"For example, 39 per cent either thought that phones don’t have any hazardous materials inside them or admitted that they’d no idea if phones do."
Well its not like the mobile phone companies are going to advertise that their mobiles are bad for the environment.
Posted Thursday 9th April 2009 14:25 GMT
Walker
Yes indeed... #
Nokia's online store tried to jump on that particular bandwagon by sellng the black N79 for exactly the same price as the white, and grey, but without a charger. "Be kind to the environment and use your existing one!" - and they'll donate £5 to charity. Never mind that the missing charger costs £15. So why not donate £15 to charity? In fact why not buy the handset for £40 less elsewhere and donate the money saved to the same charity that would only have received a paltry £5 if you'd bought from Nokia?
Because most mobile manufacturers see the eco-bandwagon as a smokescreen through which to rip people off, perhaps?
Posted Thursday 9th April 2009 14:25 GMT
Simon
Eco, yeah whatever.. #
Well, we have grown cynical about all this "Green" stuff.
It just seems another marketing ploy to get us to buy more of their stuff.
Well how about the first problem is that if we ditch all our current "Environment destroying" phones to buy a new Eco one we are helping no one because someone has to then deal with all the waste from our old phones we just dumped.
Better to hold onto the old phone for now. Then wait until *All* phones are good to our planet.
*Yawn*
Posted Thursday 9th April 2009 14:25 GMT
Tony Hoyle
Title should be 'marketing stopped working' #
We don't see the reason why an 'Eco' Handset should cost more than a normal one that does exactly the same thing, and are sick to death of marketing people telling us that the latest buzzword is so great we have to pay more for it.
The thing is made out of plastic and metal. It aint rice paper... it's going to stick around for a long time once it's dumped. Exactly the same is true for the 'Eco' ones.
Posted Thursday 9th April 2009 18:34 GMT
Vision Aforethought
Solar handset #
Samsung and LG showed fairly reasonable solar panel equipped handsets - that would be useful as it could trickle charge constantly during the day - solving one of the two issues here, battery life.
It is sad people today are not as ethical or concerned as in the 70s and 80s. Back then, shows like Blue Peter encouraged charity and creativity, while today, it is self promotion, celebs and victim mentality. I know this is not the forum for such sentiments, but every day spent in the UK gets more depressing. Sadly, I'm probably alone on this so expect to be flamed.
Posted Thursday 9th April 2009 18:34 GMT
Anonymous Coward
RE: “bio-plastic” sucks #
We have "Compostable flatware" were I work, and the things are crap, the forks will bend if you look at them funny, the spoons will do this sort of Salvador Dali thing when put in close proximity to soup, and the knives are so dull that by the time you get through your food it has decomposed already, regular old vodka will burn right through the cups.
So other than the case, there is nothing they can make 'eco-friendly', the most they could do is use inferior lead-free components and solder.
Posted Thursday 9th April 2009 23:55 GMT
Iain Thomas
WEEE #
Aren't mobile phones covered by the WEEE regulations? So don't the mobile phone cos have to pay for recycling/treating old phones anyway?
Posted Tuesday 14th April 2009 11:29 GMT
Mark Daniels
NOC's..... #
The devices are themselves only the tip of what is an enormous iceberg.
I work for a 'telecoms supplier' and spend a lot of time in server rooms. These things chew through power like water over the edge of Niagara.
The 'typical' purple clad server is geared up to run at between 500 and 1000 watts, depending on the Config.
Two or three of these in one cabinet, plus the drives, plus the back ups, plus the air con' units, plus the……
Assume 50 cabinets per NOC [a round if conservative figure] all running 24 hours and one plus, in a small bungalow in Weston Super Mere powering a small Finnish mobile is, in the grand scheme of things, irrelevant.
What is really needed is some sort of joined up way of producing the power in the first place, using all the different 'green' technologies -wind, hydro, solar et al-, having people generate some / most / of their domestic needs through their own green generation -again, solar, wind etc- thereby encouraging users to 'value' the power they consumer by understanding more about how it is made.
There also needs to be a drive the Government UK to force Britain PLC to start actually making some of this green technology, not just importing German windmills and Swiss turbines…...
This topic is closed for new posts.