Motorola’s Recycled Cell Phone

Who: Motorola; Albuquerque, NM (HQ)

What: Motorola W233 Renew Cell Phone

Where: T-Mobile or AT&T, $9.99 when you renew your existing plan. Through April 30th, new T-Mobile subscribers qualify for a free phone and $100 cashback. For other providers, look for an unlocking code – see PC Magazine.

Why: Wish this phone was on the market when I was shopping for my last phone. I spent a week looking for a more environmentally friendly option and the best my Verizon rep could offer was a phone that was green, as in the color green…..meet Motorola’s Renew, a cell phone that is actually green.

With most Americans averaging a new cell phone every two years, it is nice to see a cell phone on the market with a conscience. Boasting a talk time of 9 hours (read: a lot less charging!), standby time up to 18 days, this is an incredibly energy efficient phone. The plastic shell is made with 25% post-consumer recycled water bottles and over 70% of its components are recyclable. Even the packaging is green using 100% post-consumer recycled paper and a 22% smaller package. In addition Motorola purchased carbon offsets through the Carbonfund in support of renewable energy sources and reforestation. It is consider the first carbon free cell phone.

Incredibly lightweight the phone, itself, is pretty basic. It makes clear quality phone calls using noise reduction with speaker boost which automatically tuning out the noise around you. Fewer of the bells and whistles of other phones on the market, there is no camera, a small display with low resolution, and just a basic music player. But this works for those of us who just want a phone that makes phone calls…….and texts….and plays a few tunes……