Standardized Phone Chargers
By Jenn | February 19, 2009
Great news, on a subject we’ve all known is an issue without ever really thinking about it: 17 mobile phone companies have agreed to use a standard mini-USB charger for their phones by 2012!
This means you’ll no longer end up with a kabillion phone chargers in that bottom drawer, since the one you used with your old phone will work with your new phone when you upgrade (which it’s best not to do unless absolutely necessary, given e-waste issues and the coltan problem and all. But I digress.)
From Wired: “The initiative is aiming to address the environmental impact of cellphone chargers in a number of ways: 1.) Reducing the overall amount of cellphones produced by 50 percent; 2.) Decreasing the amount of waste produced by discarded, useless cellphone chargers; and 3.) Cutting down on the energy and materials (including toxic chemicals) required to produce chargers by 51,000 tons.”
This is really, really great news. Those chargers are usually still perfectly functional even after the phone’s shot, and it’s just lunacy to have to toss out a usable piece of tech. So huzzah for this brilliant initiative!
However, Apple hasn’t yet signed on to the agreement, most likely owing to their love of charging small fortunes for proprietary chargers. Stinky Apple.
[Image by Godwin D via Creative Commons]
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ah great news! hopefully apple signs on. (i would love for them to do this with ipods, not just iphones, too.)
Huzzah?
According to the OED, “In English the form hurrah is literary and dignified; hooray is usual in popular acclamation.”
As you know, I am nothing if not literary *and* dignified.
You gals are really on top of this! I just started doing some work in the wireless space to help them be more environmentally friendly, and this was Topic A. (I came out of wireless industry before I went to green space).
It’s a really big deal for the wireless industry to do this because the chargers are one of their highest margin items. This means they made a larger percentage of profit on the chargers than on other items, like the cell phones themselves. So they’re really giving up a lot (from a pure profit perspective) to do this.
A great victory for us greenies! And it was really pushed by our friends the Europeans!