Samsung Eco-Phone

Check this out – Samsung just released a phone made entirely of bioplastic. That’s right – the entire casing for this phone is made from corn based plastic – this means no petroleum required!

While this is the first I am hearing about it, according to this article Samsung has apparently been making phones with bioplstics for almost a year now, but this is the first one to be entirely petroleum free. According to the article, the E200 Eco has, “a 1.3-megapixel camera, video messaging capabilities and an MP3 player. The phone will be available in Europe next month but does not yet have an American release date. As a bonus, the phone’s packaging is made from recycled materials.” The article also states that, “Samsung isn’t alone in its research and development of renewable materials for cellphones. Nokia introduced the 3110 Evolve in December 2007. In May, the Business Standard reported that Nokia would bring 40 new biodegradable models to market by the end of 2008.”

Awesome! But is there a downside? We know that using petroleum is bad because we already have a shortage of it and we need to ruin our planet to get more of it. Is corn any better? We have already seen world food prices go up because of our new uses for corn (there are certainly other reasons for this price increase, but the vast majority of experts agree that ethanol is ONE OF the causes), so are we just going to switch over from one addiction to another?

I like the idea of bioplastics, and lord knows I am a sucker for innovation in just about every sense. Lets just make sure to not overdo it shall we?