Motorola unveils world’s first carbon neutral mobile phone

Motorola has released the world’s first carbon neutral mobile phone with the aim of making social responsibility ‘accessible to people everywhere’.

The Renew W233 is the first ever handset to be made using recycled plastic bottles.

Its features are basic. No camera, no bluetooth, and a 128×128 CSTN display. It does, however, come with an MP3 player, and supports up to 2GB memory.

The handset weighs just 83 grams. Up to 9 hours talk time and 18 days standby are possible on the battery, meaning less energy is spent charging it up.

Motorola has teamed up with Carbonfund.org to offset the carbon dioxide produced in the manufacture of the W233.

The phone’s packaging is reduced 22% compared to standard Motorola handsets, and contains a high proportion of recycled materials.

A pre-paid envelope included with the phone makes it easy to post off the handset for recycling once you’ve had enough of it worn it out. If you remember where you put the envelope, that is.

So is it really eco-friendly?

Motorola’s choice of recycled plastic is better than the bioplastics used in Samsung E200 Eco and Nokia 3110 Evolve. Growing biofuels - which are needed to make bioplastics - uses up land that could be used to produce much needed foods.

Carbon offsetting the production process, however, is slightly more controversial. British tree expert Oliver Rackham says that carbon offsetting is about as effective as telling people to drink more water to stop sea levels rising.

Can I get one?

The Renew W233 is only available in the US and is limited to dual-band GSM 850 / 1900 MHz operation, meaning that it can’t be used in Europe. Not quite ‘accessible to people everywhere’, then. Unless, perhaps, you understand ‘everywhere’ in the American sense of the term.