GreenSage E-zine 02/2008

Nokia Phone 'Remade' From Recycled Tires, Cans, Plastic Bottles

Nokia has unveiled “Remade” a concept phone made out of aluminum cans, plastic drink bottles, car tires, and other recycled materials. The phone would also use environment-friendly technologies, including printed electronics and display graphics that save energy, according to Nokia.

For now, “Remade” is just a concept. The idea behind the concept was to see if it was possible to create a device made from nothing new, according to the company.

In December, Nokia launched the 3110 Evolve, which has “bio-covers” made from more than 50 percent renewable material, metals from aluminum cans and plastics from drink bottles. Materials from old car tires would make up the phones' rubber key mats. The phones would also use environment-friendly technologies, including printed electronics and display graphics that save energy, according to Nokia. The device comes in packaging made of 60 percent recycled content and it has a new charger that uses 94 percent less energy than the Energy Star requirements.

Nokia's CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo unveiled "Remade" at the Mobile World Congress conference in Barcelona. The idea is to create mobile phones that cause less of a strain on natural resources, while reducing landfill and increasing energy-efficient production, the company said.

The world's No. 1 phone maker is working on another "green" concept called Eco Sensor, which involves a wearable mobile phone and a sensing device that analyzes a person's health and surrounding environment. The Eco Sensor concept, which was introduced last year, follows the "reduce, reuse, and recycle" model, meaning that both the phone and the sensor unit would feature a compact design and contain materials that can be renewed or reclaimed.

For those that don't want to wait until the concepts come to fruition, Nokia will offer the 3110 Evolve in the first half of this year.

The 3110 Evolve comes with a 1.3-megapixel camera, FM tuner, MP3 player, and expandable memory with a microSD card slot. But the phone will only be available in the U.K. and Germany.