A Mobile Phone made from… Bamboo and Corn!
Sunday, March 2nd, 2008
One of the entrants in the Greener Gadgets Design Competition 2008 has created a degradable mobile phone using corn and bamboo.
OK, the whole thing isn’t made from corn and bamboo - only the case. It uses a bio-plastic derived from corn and bamboo. But given today’s throw away society goes through more than 289 million mobile phones per quarter, it’s a good start.
The phone, called ‘Bamboo’, was created by Gert-Jan van Breugel from the Netherlands. When the phone reaches the end of it’s useful life, the user simply removes the battery, antenna, and print board, then places the case into compost. Within a few months, bamboo will shoot up from the ground!
The phone also has a hand-powered recharger. This way, you can recharge the phone without having to use electricity. After 3 minutes of using the cranking charger, the phone will have enough power for a phone call. However, at this stage, it’s unclear how long that phone call will last!
