iPod Recycling

The new Apple iPad was unveiled last week in San Francisco. It weighs less than 2 pounds, is only half an inch thick and 10 inches tall, but apart from a great design it also has many green features as well.

Eco-friendly features on the new iPad include a recyclable aluminium and glass enclosure, mercury free LCD display and arsenic free display glass. It’s also completely free of brominated flame retardants and PVC.

The iPad also allows users to listen to music, watch videos or surf for up to 10 hours on a single charge. Unlike other Apple products the battery inside can be recharged up to 1000 times making it last much longer.

The Apple iPad is also an e-book reader; users can download Apple’s latest application, iBooks for free from the App Store to read environmentally friendly electronic books.

Wi-Fi models of the iPad will start shipping into the UK in late March and 3G models in April.

Vodafone has revealed that they have sold 100,000 iPhones since its launch onto the network on the 14th January this year.

The figure included pre-orders taken before the launch date but the network is very happy that so many have already been sold. The iPhone will also be released on Vodafone pay as you go in the next few weeks.

People who have recently moved to Vodafone and bought the iPhone may have an old model that they now want to sell and can do using popular mobile recycling sites including Mopay, Money4urMobile or Mobile Phone Xchange.

It has been estimated that by the end of 2012 there will be over 80 million iPhone sales worldwide.

Recycle your old iPhone here

Networks that carry the Apple iPhone including Orange and Vodafone were awarded the 2^nd and 3^rd places in an evaluation of Europe’s greenest mobile operators. The study carried out by ABI Research saw Deutsche Telecom claim the top spot.

Under the innovation category the networks were measured their direct or indirect impact on green innovations for the supplier value chain, their green Research and Development efforts, their smart grid networks and their use of innovative metrics for the measurement of carbon reduction.

In the implementation category each network was measured according to their green network infrastructure, green initiatives and how green their IT operations are.

The research also looked at the network’s use of green packaging, green logistics fleets, whether they added green content onto their handsets and how environmentally friendly their buildings and facilities are.

New iPhone carrier Vodafone was commended for its green efforts despite the size of the company and Orange showed initiative in terms of measuring its own environmental impact through innovative internal tools.

When most people buy a new iPod the plastic case that it came in will be the first thing to be thrown in the bin and end up at landfill. In order to help solve this problem Japanese company Bird-Electron have designed a new iPod recycling speaker which fits into the existing plastic case.

The Bird-Electron EZ17-B recycling speaker is a gadget that turns the plastic packaging into a cool set of external speakers. The speaker requires no external batteries or power supply and simply drops on top of the original open plastic case which is then used as a carrying case. The speakers own packaging is made entirely from biodegradable materials.

The EZ17-B recycling speakers are not yet available in the UK but can be purchased from many US websites for around £24.

Mopay launched back in 2005 making them one of the oldest mobile recycling services on the web. In the past 5 years they have only dealt with mobile phones up until now when they have launched a new iPod trade in service for all their customers.

The new cash for iPods service has been set up in an effort to deliver more value to their website users and also help to recycle more of the UK’s electrical waste correctly.

Mopay’s iPod recycling service allows users to send in any iPod model ranging from the classic through to the touch generations. They offer competitive prices for each iPod model ranging from £2.50 to £60.

Recycle your old iPod at Mopay here

In Greenpeace’s recently released quarterly Guide to Greener Electronics, iPod and iPhone manufacturer, Apple has jumped to a highly respectable 5th place from 9th last October.

The Guide to Greener Electronics Guide ranks 18 global electronics companies for the environmental impact of their products including their take back schemes, initiatives to reduce climate impact and their use of toxic materials in products.

This quarter, Greenpeace also featured a new rating system in their guide which Apple have earned four stars for completely eliminating toxic and hazardous materials from their product line, unlike many of their competitors.

Several other electronics manufacturers including Sharp, Sony and Samsung dropped their rank this quarter in the Greenpeace Guide.

The top five consumer electronics companies in the latest ranking were Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Toshiba, Philips and Apple. Of all companies assessed, Nintendo still remains the worst performing.

The full Greenpeace report and rankings can be found here

From the 14^th January consumers in the UK will be able to purchase the iPhone on the Vodafone network. This could be a great time for consumers with an old iPod or iPhone hidden away to sell them to earn cash towards an upgrade.

Anyone who pre-orders the handset before the 14^th will get free Vodafone to Vodafone calls and free texts on all but the cheapest tariff.

The iPhone will be available on a number of different tariffs ranging from 18 to 24 months in length. The lowest deal will be £30 per month for the iPhone 3G 8GB. In order to get the iPhone 3G for free new customers must sign up to a 24 month contract at £45 month which will include unlimited texts and 1200 minutes of call time.

People interested in recycling or upgrading their old iPods and iPhones to the next big gadget could be interested in the latest device Apple are releasing this year, the iSlate.

The iSlate is a touchscreen Wi-Fi tablet computer that will allow users to read books and magazines on its 10 inch screen, as well as listen to music, watch videos, play games and browse the Internet. It’s also expected to have mouse and keyboard connectivity.

The official announcement from Apple about the iSlate is supposed to the 26th January, although industry insiders are suggesting that Apple could unveil this new device as early as next week.

Although the iSlate sounds like the next must have gadget, its unlikely the price tag will be much less than £500.

Help save the environment and cut your own carbon footprint with these cool ‘green’ iPhone applications available from the iTunes store:

1. A Real Tree – A Real Tree is a virtual tree that changes with the seasons on your iPhone. It also helps support reforestation by donating money to plant more trees in the real world.



2. Goodguide – Goodguide helps you pick healthy green products when your out shopping in the supermarket. It has a bar code reader on it that makes looking up items even easier.



3. Locavore – Provides you with a list of healthy produce that is in season week by week. It can be used locally or when travelling to help you locate farmers markets and restaurants that serve fresh produce.



4. 3^rd Whale’s Find Green – Find Green helps you find healthy living and sustainable businesses at the touch of a button. The GPS enabled app can determine your exact location and help you find the best local green businesses from over 60,000 listings.



5. NASA’s chemical sniffing app – This app is not available to the general public as its too technologically advanced. This prototype chemical sniffer hooks up to the bottom of the iPhone to sniff out small amounts of ammonia, chlorine, methane and other chemicals to help save lives.

The next iPhone is set to include a 5 megapixel camera to help it compete with other Smartphones also being released in 2010.

The iPhone 4 will include technology provided by Omnivision, a company that currently provides Apple with image sensors. Omnivision have predicted that in 2010 they will supply Apple with 40 – 45 million units in comparison to the 21 million sold in 2009.

It’s possible that the iPhone 4’s camera will also feature a flash to allow it to take better pictures.

Anyone looking to upgrade their iPhone and recycle their old one may be tempted to wait for the iPhone 4 to be release later in 2010.