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Handhelds Hardware Science

Biodegradable Cell Phones Sprout Into Flowers 181

Posted by michael from the don't-get-them-wet dept.
Neurowiz writes "Tired of your cell phone and lusting after the new model with all the geek-gadgets? Worried about the effect that throwing away your cell phones may have on the environment? Worry not! 'Researchers at the University of Warwick's Warwick Manufacturing Group, in conjunction with PVAXX Research & Development Ltd, have devised a novel way to recycle discarded mobile telephones - bury them and watch them transform into the flower of your choice.' What's next? Plant your PC/Mac and watch a house grow?"
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Biodegradable Cell Phones Sprout Into Flowers More

Biodegradable Cell Phones Sprout Into Flowers

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  • It's *not* a biodegradible cell phone. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Skyshadow ( 508 ) * on Tuesday November 30, 2004 @02:42PM (#10954749) Homepage
    It's not a biodegradible cell phone. It's a biodegradible cell phone case. As in the thin plastic shell that covers the guts of the phone. As in maybe 5% of the total bulk of the phone.

    Don't get me wrong, it's better than nothing, but nobody who buys one of these disposible cell phones are should think they're making an environmentally sound purchase because it might sprout a pretty flower someday. There's a lot more to the phone than just the case, and a lot of it isn't anything you'd want to see buried in your backyard -- batteries, plastic circuit boards, etc. In practice, it seems more likely that this will actually *harm* the environment as morons bury the whole thing once their minutes are used up, the whole time thinking they're being a responsible friend of the earth. Even if you're smarter than the average bear and read the directions about only burying the case, it's still *far* better to get yourself an cell phone on contract and use it for a few years before trading up than it is to go through a few of these things a year.

    Of course, given the profession that tends to be the biggest customer for disposable phones, if you're concerned about the environment I'd also suggest that you should encourage your customers to recycle those glass vials you're selling them their crack in.

    • a novel way to recycle discarded mobile telephones - bury them and watch them transform into the flower of your choice

      WRONG! The summary would lead one to believe you can do this with present cell phones, but this is barely in the prototype stage, much less actually in use for years. If just the article submitters would RTA. Think you could do that next time?
    • It's not a biodegradible cell phone. It's a biodegradible cell phone case.
      Good point. Very good point. May I draw your attention to who posted it - you must be new here ... er hang on, you aren't. I'll get me coat.

    • Re:It's *not* a biodegradible cell phone. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by RangerRick98 ( 817838 ) on Tuesday November 30, 2004 @03:00PM (#10954995) Journal
      it's still *far* better to get yourself an cell phone on contract and use it for a few years before trading up than it is to go through a few of these things a year.

      Agreed. And even better than burying the case and throwing the rest away would be to donate the old phone to a women's shelter or something similar, since they can be used to dial 911 even when no service is attached to it.
      • GSM phones cannot be used to dial anything, not even 911, without a SIM card which is/was valid for the home service area of the phone. So if you donate your old GSM phone, be sure and leave the (expired) SIM card in it, and make sure you're donating it somewhere that's in the same home service area that the SIM card was originally used for.

        And forget dialing 911 while on the road with one of these. It would work with an analog phone, but the GSM one will tell you "No service" even while you stand in the

        • GSM phones cannot be used to dial anything, not even 911, without a SIM card which is/was valid for the home service area of the phone.

          Sure they can, most of them. All of them manufactured since mid-2000. Over the summer I worked at a place that made cellphone games, and hence I was surrounded by dozens of phones without SIM cards. The GSM ones we used would all bitch at you if you tried to dial something other than 911 without a SIM card, but 911 dials fine. In fact, a lot of phones change their default
    • ". . .pressure from some customers who want to feel they are making an environmentally sensitive purchase."

      The emphasis is mine.

      KFG
    • The emphasis was on the word feel.

      KFG
    • First, the article says they changed the formulation of the plastic case/cover to be more biodegradeable. Fair enough. Those cases can be diverted during the recycling process.

      However also from the the article:
      "Secondly the engineers at the University of Warwick have created a small transparent window in the case or cover in which they can embed a seed. The seed is visible to the environmentally aware mobile phone user but will not germinate until the phone cover or case is recycled. [...] For the firs
    • So you're telling me that if my cell phone overheats, it's *just the case* that will smell like burning poo?

  • Plant a Mac (Score:5, Funny)

    by mopslik ( 688435 ) on Tuesday November 30, 2004 @02:43PM (#10954759)

    Plant your PC/Mac and watch a house grow?"

    Wouldn't planting your Mac produce an apple tree?

  • Marketing gimick? (Score:3, Informative)

    by jackelfish ( 831732 ) * on Tuesday November 30, 2004 @02:43PM (#10954760)
    While this is a cute idea, it is hardly a biodegradable cellular telephone. Based on what I could glean from the press release, all that is biodegradable is the plastic case. Biodegradable plastics have been around for a while now and this seems to be more of a marketing gimmick than anything else. Cell phone manufacturers, like Nokia, have had recycling programs for old cell phones in place for a few years now. These recycling programs deal with almost the entire cell phone and not just the plastic case (which could always be recycled anyways by taking apart the phone and pitching it into the recycle bin (if your municipality supports this)).

    • Biodegradable plastics have been around for a while now and this seems to be more of a marketing gimmick than anything else.

      Indeed. I recall (years ago) hearing a push by some company promoting their photodegradable trash bags. They were really driving the whole "it produces less waste" mantra until a number of people pointed out that most bags were buried by a thin layer of dirt to keep in the smell, and to keep out pests, thus rendering the bags useless.

      Then again, I didn't do much checking to see w

      • Not to mention what would happen if you didn't put the bags in a can, and it was a bit too long before the trash man came by...

        There's a reason Glad advertises about strength. Garbage is near the top of the list of stuff you don't want breaking open.

  • House From PC's (Score:3, Funny)

    by nuintari ( 47926 ) on Tuesday November 30, 2004 @02:43PM (#10954765) Homepage

    What's next? Plant your PC/Mac and watch a house grow?"

    I could only wish, I'd own more property than Ted Turner.

  • Bell (Score:4, Interesting)

    by 2.7182 ( 819680 ) on Tuesday November 30, 2004 @02:44PM (#10954770)
    Remember when there was a standard phone design in the old days ? Well At&t had a hard plastic version that was biodegradable in the early 80's as I recall.

  • Future things you'll overhear (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 30, 2004 @02:44PM (#10954781)
    I can't here you.

    My phone is breaking up.

    No, not the signal.

    Yes, the actual phone. It's biodegradable.

    I don't know. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

    I need to bury now it so the flower will grow. Bye.
    • This made me think of a mantra I was taught in my waste reduction training.

      Reduce
      Reuse
      Recycle

      I'd rather see cell phones that you're going to keep for years(reduce) than a number of decomposable (recycle?) cell phones. At the same time I actually want one with a bigger battery.

  • What's next? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Japong ( 793982 ) on Tuesday November 30, 2004 @02:45PM (#10954785)

    Plant your PC/Mac and watch a house grow?

    Plant your mac, grow an apple tree, of course.

    Plant your windows PC, grow some blue flowers... of DEATH!

  • Macintoshes don't grow into flowers... (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    ... They turn into fishtanks. Duh.
  • Seems to me this would turn into a situation where the phone gets wet or moist and then suddenly you've got a flower growing out of the phone you're trying to use causing you to disgard it early or at least the case.

  • Weed (Score:5, Funny)

    by romper ( 47937 ) * on Tuesday November 30, 2004 @02:46PM (#10954797)
    Just don't get caught with a marijuana-themed phone. ^_^
  • I buried my Windows PC and it 'sprouted' a pile of shit. I've had been turning that into fertilizer for years. Unfortunately I was sued for copyright infringment -- something about a derivative work.
  • growing a pizza parlor from stem cells?

  • Sprout Flowers (Score:5, Interesting)

    by CastrTroy ( 595695 ) on Tuesday November 30, 2004 @02:48PM (#10954833)
    I didn't RTFA, but for some reason, I'm pretty sure this doesn't apply to the battery. Which is probably one of the more toxic parts of the phone.

    How about building a phone that lasts more than 1 year. Or supplying a battery for the phone that costs little enough so that buying a whole new phone isn't an attractive option. If you told someone in 1950 that not only most people have portable phones in 50 years, but that they'd spend over $200 on this phone, and replace it ever year, they'd probably laugh in your face.
    • I didn't RTFA
      Neither did the person who posted the story. Film at 11.
    • Lets see... how biodegradable could you make it?

      RFID chips implanted in pets are 100% biodegradable:
      http://www.fims.uwo.ca/olr/mar170 4 /chipping.htm

      Of course, RFID chips are appallingly simple ;) There are a number of medical "microchips" out there that are biodegradable, but they're not microchips in the normal sense (they're drug-containing chips that are "time release" by the rate of their dissolution)

      I'd imagine that you could probably get 80s-era (or perhaps even early 90s-era) electronics densit
      • Ironically, a fuel cell should far outlast the features of the phone itself. You'll want to buy a new phone just for the "Nokia Tricorder(TM)" feature long before the fuel cell wears out (assuming the membrane doesn't plug up with impurities over time or can be cleaned/replaced.)

        It's conceivable that the fuel cells could be manufactured as a separate modular component, sold in standardized shapes (such as AA, AAA, and 9V batteries are today), and could be taken from the old phone for use in the new one.

        • Re:Sprout Flowers (Score:2, Insightful)

          by Moofie ( 22272 )
          Why on EARTH would the manufacturers, who profit from proprietary battery designs, ever make standard cell sizes? I think you misunderstand whose interests they're looking out for.

          Hint: Not yours.
          • A very good point.

            That implies the most likely offering will be having the fuel cell molded into the plastics of the phone body itself. Non-removable power cell means non-reusable, and we get to buy whole new ones when we're sick of the phones.

    • NiCad batteries are bad, I imagine most phones
      use Li ir NiMH which are fine. OTOH the tantalum
      is another problem. Not particularly toxic, but
      exceedingly rare. You've heard of blood diamonds?
      What about blood-phones?

  • you can get inside easily enough, but have to ask the house for permission so it will open the door to let you back outside.

    If its a PC that ran Windows, you don't get any doors or windows - just the holes where they should have been.

    If its a PC that ran *nix, you have to unhang/rehang the doors every time you want in or out.

  • If a Cell Phone Falls In the Forest (Score:5, Funny)

    by Tackhead ( 54550 ) on Tuesday November 30, 2004 @02:49PM (#10954847)
    If a cell phone falls in the forest...
    ...can you hear me now?

  • I am more worried about effects of radio waves on my brains [cancer-health.org]!!!
  • I don't know...I can choose some pretty interesting flowers. You know the flower that a supermodel pops out of when the petals open? Yeah, that'd be my flower of choice. Or perhaps the G5-flower, which is exactly like the supermodel flower except...you know. Another interesting one to see would be the live-grenade flower. Not to be close while it blooms, mind you, just close enough to watch the fun.

    But...for some reason, I don't believe that the researchers actually have phenomenal flower-based super

  • ET Phone home (Score:4, Funny)

    by ad0gg ( 594412 ) on Tuesday November 30, 2004 @02:49PM (#10954858)
    Now we know why the flower in the Movie ET was a great significance. It was actually his cell phone.
  • What's next? Plant your PC/Mac and watch a house grow?

    How nutty. That's like, using old RAM boards as keychains or something. Stop with this nonsense....

    ___
    "We had planned to integrate a Web browser with our operating system as far back as 1993" Microsoft (27 Jul 1998, filing its first court responses to federal antitrust)
  • What's next? Plant your PC/Mac and watch a house grow?

    I could turn my current PC in to a house? I'd never have to pay a heating bill again!

  • Apologies to Pete Seeger (Score:4, Funny)

    by LittleGuy ( 267282 ) * on Tuesday November 30, 2004 @02:57PM (#10954950)
    Where have all the cellphones gone?
    Long time text messaging
    Where have all the cellphones gone?
    Long time to roam
    Where have all the cellphones gone?
    Gone to flowers every one
    When can they hear me now?
    When can they hear me now?

  • ... Beings that a flower is so much like a cel phone. It usually works better outside, and only within certain regions of the country.

    Are we going to be billed every time the thing blooms? Is there a service charge if we want to transplant it to another pot? These are things we need to know.

  • What a great idea!! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by yetanothermike ( 824215 ) on Tuesday November 30, 2004 @03:04PM (#10955046)
    Now, instead of donating my old phones to one of the many charities that reprogram them and give them to those in need of ways to make emergency calls I can instead bury it in dirt! Where do I sign up?!?
  • One mobile phone = about 2cm x 5cm x 10cm = about 100 sq cm.

    In other words, 10,000 fit into one square meter.

    In other words, all the mobile phones in the UK will fit into a small number of trucks. with compacting, that number might be as small as one.

    in other words, this is a marketing ploy.

  • But it's too bad that our phones will get to enter the third life before we will.

  • Manufacturers already take back old phones (Score:3, Interesting)

    by frinkster ( 149158 ) on Tuesday November 30, 2004 @03:07PM (#10955086)
    That Global Ethics press release is dated 2002. I'm not sure when exactly many of the mobile phone operators started their collection programs, but I can remember them occuring when I replaced my first mobile phone and that was more than 2 years ago. You see, all mobile phones have the capability (well, some Samsung models of a few years ago were unable and Samsung paid the price through a lawsuit) to place emergency calls whether they are activated or not. Manufacturers periodically collect old phones to donate to such places as women's shelters who then distribute them to battered women in need of an emergency phone. I'm sure the manufacturers receive a huge tax deduction for this act of charity.

    Anyway, if you do not want to wait for a local collection event, you can go to Motorola's web site and print out a postage-paid sticker and you can mail them your old phone. If it is in good shape it may end up helping someone in need and if not, they make sure it is disposed of in an environmentally-friendly way. And as far as I can tell, Motorola collects any mobile phone, not just Motorola phones.

    http://promo.motorola.com/recycle/phones/index.htm l [motorola.com]
  • Submitter said: "What's next? Plant your PC/Mac and watch a house grow?"


    Even if you have
    Even if you need
    I don't mean to stare
    We don't have to breed
    We could plant a house
    We could build a tree
    I don't even care
    We could have all three
    She said
    -Nirvana. Breed. Nevermind. SubPop, 1991

    Sorry man, looks like they have prior art. ;)

  • Support food banks (Score:2, Informative)

    by Markaci ( 718341 ) *
    I'd rather support a foodbank [think-food.com]. I think this process utilizes the entire phone instead of just the case.
  • So many cell phone users have their heads up their butts that we'll have a nation of walking gardens.
  • Those are some huge images linked from the site... so just in case of a Slashdotting, MirrorDot [mirrordot.com] has the page and images mirrored.

  • Great! (Score:3, Funny)

    by mindaktiviti ( 630001 ) on Tuesday November 30, 2004 @03:12PM (#10955157)
    I'm going to throw away my phone right now into the garbage and buy this one.
  • If you plant a Windows PC, you get a Glass House. And the first bug to come along will crash it.
  • Of all the plants in the world, why would they choose a weed like the sunflower? Anyone who's every had to chop one down in a cottonfield or cornfield knows what I'm talking about, those things are like miniature trees. How much harder would it have been to have it make corn? Or even just become fertilizer, that's better than a weed...
  • If one of these falls into that miniscule percentage that have exploded in people's ears then there might be the additional side-effect of having a big ass daisy growing out of the side of your head...
  • Sooner or later all mass-produced, consumer-level products will be biodegradable, or, more accurately, "key-enabled" biodegradable - products which become biodegradable when exposed to a particular chemical key. It's really the only thing that makes sense in a world of 6+ billion consumers and industrialized mass production. We live in an ecosystem evolved to readily break down particular organic compounds. We can either create our own, separate artificial ecosystem designed to recycle our inorganic was
  • I go to play the video and get this popup:
    • There seems to be a problem with your system:
      Cookies are disabled
      Browser not Microsoft Internet Explorer
      Unsuported OS (only Windows and Mac supported)
      Do you want to go ahead and try to test your bandwidth anyway

    I click "ok" - "sorry, browser not compatible"

    So let's try Knoqeror. No dice even though I fake being IE on both Mac and Windows. Warwick's page displays all my browser user agent info correctly but it apparently also checks for my version of WMP

  • For Apple, rival MP3 players that sprout into iPods! PCs that you bury in the ground, and up pocks shares of Apple stock! ... or more hair to sprout on Steve Jobs' head.

    Eureka!
  • Why not have it turn into a tree or some other tall plant with a solar-powered cell tower at the top? Even if it were just a low wattage, if it could act as a repeater, it could increase coverage wherever it grows...

    Of course, you might want something faster than a tree... maybe a saguaro cactus?

  • Grim Fandango (Score:3, Funny)

    by Magickcat ( 768797 ) on Tuesday November 30, 2004 @04:57PM (#10956471)
    So it looks like Grim Fandango [ninth-world.com] was right.
  • See http://www.phones4charity.org/ [phones4charity.org].
  • What's next? Plant your PC/Mac and watch a house grow?

    My choices are Bauhaus or a double-wide trailer? No thanks...
  • ...and it grew into a Telephone Booth. Now I have my own Baby Bell
  • ...bury them and watch them transform into the flower of your choice.

    I'd settle for a phone that I can bury in my pocket and NOT have it transform into a raging fireball. [cnn.com]

  • Plant a PC/Mac: grow a house
    Plant a Beowulf cluster: grow an apartment complex.
  • the engineers at the University of Warwick have created a small transparent window in the case or cover in which they can embed a seed.

    Does this mean I have to declare my cellphone [customs.gov] at the border? Will an import permit be required?

  • "What's next? Plant your PC/Mac and watch a house grow?"

    don't be silly, houses don't grow, they're built. How'd you decide upon a house anyway? Couldn't you say tree? Least trees are growable things.

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