Eco: how many mobile devices do you have lying around at home?

I was pondering on what to write up as a post the other day, when looking around my home office, the answer was right in front of me – the stack of Mobile devices that I don’t use regularly now.

More than any other piece of CE (consumer electronics) perhaps, Mobiles are seen now almost as a disposable, easily-replaceable device that can be swapped out at a whim. Certainly the last few years before this one were ones of excess, where people were encouraged to upgrade frequently, buy SIM-free or “Prepay” devices, and were lured constantly with big-budget marketing campaigns for the lastest must-have feature.

Of course, things have changed somewhat now, and in fact there were some signs of this anyway, before the economy went ker-plonk! Policies such as:

• SIM-only contracts – no new handset involved, in return for cheaper line rental
• Longer contracts, where the point at which you could upgrade from was extended further in to the contract
• Promotion of handset recycling campaigns

All of the above has been very money-centric, but there is also another angle of frequently consuming masses of mobile devices – and that is an ecological one. Mobile have not previously been known as the pillars of recyclable parts – particularly the batteries have been very toxic. But the signs are things are changing, with companies focusing on their green credentials.

So my point, in a roundabout kind of way, is to ask how many devices you have at home, and what do you intend to do with them? Some uses might be:

•    presents for others
•    send for recycling
•    backup device in case your current one fails
•    doorstop
•    placemat

(okay the last two are a bit jokey…..)

But perhaps in these leaner economic times we should also be looking around at home at our stack of CE devices and thinking if we can do something good ecologically too – either by re-using, re-purposing, or re-cycling….

[Image via: Yanko Design]