The technology to build disposable paper laptops is not quite here yet but the concept is pretty interesting. The laptop in the picture is made entirely of recyclable paper, which seems to be the easy part. More complicated however would be the technology under the cardboard necessary to run the device.

And since it’s a disposable laptop we would also need to be able to recycle the paper laptop fast and without any unwanted waste. The computer would be made of different layers which can be replaced whenever they get damaged so you wouldn’t have to throw it right away. Instead you would be able to keep using it while recycling the damaged materials.

The concept laptop is not available anywhere at this point, but we’d certainly love to play with one.

via Yanko Design

Tags: concept, disposable, Laptops, paper laptop, recycle

Nokia, Technopolis and Tekes revealed the Nokia Technopolis Innovation Mill which is a new initiative to recycle Nokia’s unused innovations and ideas to chosen Finnish ICT companies for further development. This initiative intends to match ideas with companies that will be able to develop them into the best products and services. Nokia’s research and development efforts produce large amounts of new mobile innovations and only a small portion of those ideas and concepts actually make it in the market as part of Nokia’s line up. Therefore, over the years, thousands of potentially winning innovations have been deferred.

The three-year initiative is a joint endeavor by Nokia, Technopolis, Tekes and several Finnish cities. The innovations issued by Nokia are in areas such as location based services and advertising, future internet services, mobile security, environmental and energy-related solutions, near field communication and health care applications among others. The target is to evaluate the thousands of available innovations and select approximately one hundred to be matched with a company which presents the best ability to exploit them.

Tags: Finnish, ideas, initiative, Nokia, Nokia, Nokia Technopolis Innovation Mill, recycle, Technopolis, Tekes

Is Nokia actually considering manufacturing a phone made out of trash? Is this their response to Samsung getting ready to launch their first handset made of corn?

When I read trash I think recycled materials which sounds like a good idea. After all why not try to re use materials which were previously a part of a defunct cell phone? Just put them back in the melting machine and let the robots recreate cases and keypads from old materials. This would effectively take care of some of those old phones transformed into polluting waste. Why stop there? Why not recycle other materials which have nothing to do with cell phones but become waste and potentially toxic?

The new phone made from trash is apparently code named Remade. Wow this is such an original name. People must have missed good sleep hours to come up with it. The Remade will be made from recycled materials. The keypad and gaskets are supposed to come out of tires and plastic components and the shell will be composed of recycled metal from cans.

How smart will the Remade be? Just so I can figure out if I’d get one.

Tags: E-waste, Mobile News, Nokia, Nokia, recycle

ReCellular’s business is to take care of those old cell phones. What they do is accept your donated old handset and then, if it’s still usable, resell it to someone else. If the phone is really out dated they will send it over to their partners to recycle it.

ReCellular is going to donate $1 for every used cell phone sold to the American Red Cross. With every 2 out of 3 Americans expected to change phones this year that might yield quite a sum. All you have to do is stick a prepaid shipping label from the Red Cross on your old handset and donate it to ReCellular. Doesn’t that feel good? Just bare in mind that you’ll have to do all that before October 31st, 2008.
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Tags: Cell Phones, Mobile News, recycle, recycling program

The Nokia World 2007 saw a few more announcements from Nokia, particularly in the area of environmental sustainability. With new initiatives in areas like energy efficiency, materials used in the manufacture of mobile phones and recycling, Nokia announced the new Nokia 3110 Evolve, a mobile phone made from more than 50% renewable material. Available in a small form-factor made of 60% recycled content, Nokia claims that it comes with its most energy efficient charger yet.

The charger uses 94% less energy than Energy Star requirements. One of the first companies to put alerts into its devices, Nokia seems to be on track for a greener world. Let’s hope they (and other manufacturers) succeed.

Nokia

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Tags: Cell Phones, energy star, evolve, Nokia, Nokia, recycle, renew, savings

Boost Mobile, a division of Sprint, unleashed the new Boost-branded Motorola i425t and i425e handsets, designed to work with Motorola’s iDEN network. The two walkie-talkie phones are touted as the slimmest models ever at 0.5″ thickness and weighing in at 3.88 oz.

The Motorola i425t is a candy-bar handset targeted at the style-conscious and comes in titanium gray/black slate trim. The Boost i425e comes in white with an espresso trim. As usual, you get tons of goodies right from wireless Internet access to MMS messaging. There’s Java support on the phones so you should be able to play games or run productivity apps on them. For IM, there’s support for AOL, Yahoo! and MSN.

Available as a Boost pay-as-you-go phone, the i425 is made of 100% recycled Polyethylene Terephthalate material. Options start from $5 pay-as-you-go service and both phones are now available online for US $39.99 each. Recharging is easy with Re-Boost cards available at Boost retailers.

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Tags: boost, candybar, Cell Phones, fashion phone, i425e, i425t, iden, Motorola, Motorola, recycle, Sprint, titanium

Excel Fortune Holdings announced recently that Europe’s largest mobile phone recycling facility will be established in Wales, UK to service and supply what has until now been a fragmented supply chain.

The company led by Mike Bandeira, has committed GBP6million to the venture with an estimated total start-up investment, including capital turnover, of GBP15million. The project has also been offered funding by the Welsh Assembly Government.

Europe has been contributing 125 million phones per year and it needs to be reused. This service will have a significant impact on the way mobiles are re-used and re-introduced to the market.

A 120,000 sq ft facility will become Excel’s European logistics hub and company headquarters and will have the capacity to handle up to 500,000 mobile handsets per month, once fully operational. 95% of the handsets collected in the UK will be recycled and then sold to developing countries such as China, India, Pakistan, Dubai and Bolivia.

Recruitment has already started in earnest to complete the first phase of set-up which will mean 150 initial jobs for the region.

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Tags: Mobile News, Mobile News, Phone, recycle