Motorola's Renew cell phone made partly from recycled plastic water bottles

The green product trend is nothing new, but this is the first cell phone to portray itself as the most environmentally friendly option on the market. The Motorola Renew is a mass market phone that has been partly made out of recycled plastic water bottles, and is advertised as having a zero carbon footprint. INCLUDES VIDEO.
3/30/2009 6:00:00 AM By: Brian Jackson

If you ever felt like taking your boat for a spin about 900 km off the California coast, you'd eventually reach the North Pacific Gyre. It wouldn't look like much on the surface, but dip in a net and you'd pull it up to find it full of plastic debris.

The Gyre is a Quebec-sized meeting of ocean currents that swirl together and function as an aggregating force for all of the plastic debris in the sea. A writhing mass of underwater garbage reaches 30 metres deep, a disturbing reminder of modern civilization's horrible impact on Earth's natural environment.

No wonder the green movement is hip these days. A parade of consumer trends have indicated that marketing your product as environmentally sustainable is often met with success.

Motorola Inc. is the latest to want to cash in on this trend with the launch of its Renew cell phone.

The slender phone's plastic components are made from used plastic water bottles that were recovered from land fills. It has been given a CarbonFree Certified stamp by non-profit organization Carbonfund.org, which encourages companies to create green products and assists with a marketing label.

The idea to make a phone that was 25 per cent recycled plastic water bottles came when Motorola discovered they were widely available, says Bill Olson, director of sustainability and stewardship at Motorola. It took four years of research and development to perfect the plastic recipe for use in a mass market phone.

“We spent years on the plastic and its formulation to make sure it was just as rugged and just as reliable as existing plastic used in our phones today,” he says. “We did everything we could within the limits of technology to make this phone as green as possible.”

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