Motorola Announces New Eco Phone; Made From Plastic Bottles

Author: JohnnyV

6 Jan

Carbon Footprint, and Green might have been banned words going into 2009, but don’t tell that to Motorola. They’ve release the first phone that is completely carbon neutral. Meaning “no hazardous forms of production were used in the making of this phone”.

The handset is called, MOTO W233 Renew. In Motorola’s press release, they don’t go into greatl detail about what the phone does. It’s pretty much a four paragraph long statement about how ‘green’ their phone is. Here’s the statement:

MOTO W233 Renew delivers the quality you expect from a Motorola device while empowering you to reduce your carbon footprint. Not only is the plastic housing of Renew made from plastics comprised of recycled water bottles and 100 percent recyclable, but it is also the world’s first carbon neutral phone. Through an alliance with Carbonfund.org, Motorola offsets the carbon dioxide required to manufacture, distribute and operate the phone through investments in renewable energy sources and reforestation. The phone has earned Carbonfund.org’s CarbonFree® Product Certification after an extensive product life-cycle assessment.

“Today, natural resources, energy and time are more precious than ever before,” said Jeremy Dale, corporate vice president, global marketing, Motorola Mobile Devices. “From the product’s design, to the packaging to our partnership with Carbonfund.org, we wanted to ensure that this device makes the right impact with consumers and the environment.”

When designing the packaging, Motorola was able to reduce its size by 22 percent and the box and all of the materials inside are printed on 100 percent post-consumer recycled paper. In addition, a postage-paid recycling envelope in box makes it easy to return your previous mobile phone for recycling at no cost.

Renew was designed for eco-conscious consumers as well as the millions of people who put making phone calls as their number one priority in a mobile phone. With nine hours of talk time, CrystalTalk technology and messaging capabilities, Renew makes environmental responsibility affordable for consumers everywhere. Renew will first be available at T-Mobile USA in Q1 2009.

It really does sound like Motorola has spared no expense in making sure that they were completely environmentally friendly in making the Renew. From the handset made from recycled bottles, to the recycled paper used in printing the instructions.

I would also like to have seen what the Renew is capable of though. Will it come with more stripped down features to help keep it affordable, because of the higher productions costs? The MOTO W233 Renew will be available sometimes in Q1 of this year, so we don’t have too much more time to wait.