Motorola Kickstarts the Green Cell Economy with New Phone

Originally announced at CES in January, the Motorola W233 Renew cell phone has found a home with T-Mobile. And while this candybar-style phone might not elicit the oohs and ahhs and on-command drooling that have been programmed into us by such marvels as the iPhone or the G1 Google Phone, it still breaks some ground for the cell phone industry thanks to its ecologically green construction. Motorola boasts that the Renew's plastic housing is 100 percent recyclable and "is the first mobile phone to be made from plastics comprised of recycled water bottles, which means 20 percent less energy is needed to create the phone compared to standard plastic processes." Additionally, Motorola has partnered with Carbonfund.org to offset the CO2 created in the manufacturing and distribution process of the phone as well as the operation of the phone through its lifetime of use.

The unfussy Renew seems to be a solid, affordable mobile communicator for voice and text messaging, and it includes a MicroSD slot, digital audio player, Motorola's CrystalTalk voice enhancement technology (great for making yourself heard to your caller when there's a lot of background noise), and up to 9 hours of talk time. What it doesn't have is a camera, EDGE data connectivity, any Bluetooth profiles, slide-out keyboard, web browser with RSS feeds, motion sensor for counting steps, or really anything fancy. While it would be nice to have a more fully packaged phone with green cred, I agree with Mark Harris at the Stuff.tv blog who thinks that going basic is a good first step since "it's better that the green revolution starts with the mass market instead of with prima donna smartphones that will only over be used by a handful of early adopters?" A good beginning, indeed, but certainly more can and needs to be done.

It'll be interesting to see how the Renew fares on the next Greenpeace Electronics Survey (you can download the whole PDF guide for ratings on PCs as well as other electronics), which rated the Samsung SGH-F268 as the greenest choice for mobile phones (as it's free from brominated flame retardants and PVC and has good power credentials). The Motorola W233 Renew is available for order now, and it's pretty darn affordable.

--Agen G.N. Schmitz