How to Make Your Cell Phone use Green

It’s a fact that there are ‘greener’ things than cell phones. But for most of us, smoke signals and tin can telephones just don’t get the job done anymore. But don’t fret! There are a few easy steps that everyone can take to make their mobile phone use as ecologically friendly as possible.

1. Always unplug your cell phone charger when it’s not being used! Leaving your charger plugged in wastes energy and costs you money. I know almost nobody that follows this advice, and until a few months ago I had never even considered how chargers not is use would waste energy.
2. Only charge your phone when the battery is almost completely dead. New phone batteries can last up to a week without needing to be charged. Don’t get into the habit of charging your cell phone every night even though it may not need it.
3. Dispose of your cell phone battery properly! Even though most cell phone batteries aren’t the most hazardous substances on the planet, that still doesn’t mean you should throw them in the old bonfire. Because of The Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation there is a location near you that will accept your old cell phone batteries for recycling.
4. Consider buying a solar cell phone charger. No matter what brand of cell phone you have there is brand of solar cell phone charger that will work for you. Solaris makes a brand of charger that will work with almost any phone including the iPhone. Xcite makes a similarly useful charger. SolLight makes a charger specifically for the iPhone.
5. Take steps to prolong your cell phone battery life. Hold down the ‘#’ key and lock your cell phone. Use the ‘tools’ section of your phone’s menu to minimize the amount of time the back light is on. If possible, minimize the brightness of the back light. These are just a few steps you can take.

These are just a few ideas that I use to prevent energy waste. What else do you do to make your phone use green? Leave your ideas in the comments!

A theoretical orbital solar cell field

Professor John Mankins has an idea of creating a field of solar cells in outer space that could beam power to Earth and in theory could provide 10,000 times the energy needed by all of Earth’s civilizations. This episode of Discovery Project Earth on Planet Green TV presents a number of tests designed to prove whether such a lofty goal would be possible.

The first test consists of launching a normal solar cell, and a solar cell whose effectiveness is intensified with a Fresnel lens 100,000 feet into the air to make sure that solar cells could function properly at the edge of the Earth’s atmosphere. I won’t ruin the results for you, but I will say that I wasn’t surprised at what happened.

After that test was complete, things got much more interesting. For solar cells to function from space there would need to be a way to get the energy back to Earth. One way that this could be possible would be to beam the power back to Earth using concentrated microwaves. To test this a set of controlled experiments were conducted starting with beaming energy over 12 feet in a lab and finishing with the transfer of energy over 60 miles between two Hawaiian islands. The controlled experiment worked perfectly as did a much shorter version of the 60 mile experiment. The larger experiment didn’t work quite as planned, but going from 100 yards to 60 miles is a rather large jump.

How Green Was This Show: It was extremely green. You don’t get much greener than proposing a way to generate 100% of the world’s energy through solar power.

Fun Facts:

• Solar cells strengthened with Fresnel lenses were eight times as effective in the experiment compared to normal solar cells
• Solar cells in space could generate five times as much energy.

So, I live in Naperville, Illinois and was driving around about a week ago when I noticed a new solar panel on a 6 acre park.

Hobson West Ponds, Naperville, IL

There is no plaque anywhere in the park explaining what the solar panel is for. I tried looking at the city of Naperville’s website, and Googling around and found no information about the panel. I didn’t notice anything electric located at the park that the panel could be locally powering, so I’m quite unsure what it is for. Regardless of any of that, it has to be a good thing, and I am looking forward to finding out its purpose.

“Green Store and More is a family run business that strives to offer green products of all kinds at fair prices.”

Check out the April specials at GreenStoreAndMore.com.

The items listed below will be shipped FREE for for the entire month of April! Our March specials were popular and we expect this month to be the same.

SPECIAL ONE:

Hybrio 30-Minute Multi-Voltage NiMH/NiCd Speed Charger
Cost: $37.99
Shipping: FREE

30 Minute Speed Charger

UltraLast rechargeable batteries offer consumers savings up to $700 per battery when compared to disposable alkaline batteries. All UltraLast rechargeable batteries and chargers are backed by UltraLast’s unsurpassed quality guarantee.

Features:
* Charges up to 4 AA/AAA NiMH or NiCd batteries in 30 minutes
* Ready for use just as disposable battery, but rechargeable
* Includes four 2100mAh AA NiMH HYBRIO batteries

Click here for more information about the Hybrio 30 Minute Charger

SPECIAL TWO:

4 Piece Quilted Reusable Shopping Bag Set
Cost: $49.99 (This item’s MSRP is $80.95!)
Shipping: FREE

4 Piece Quilted Reusable Shopping Bag Set

This set includes: 1 lime green, 1 orange, 1 pink, and 1 aqua blue vibrantly colored reusable shopping tote. Each tote features toggle closure, one exterior pocket on each side and padded shoulder straps. Every bag is 100% cotton. Handwashing is recommended.

Click here for more information about the 4 piece quilted reusable shopping bag set

SPECIAL THREE: Brand New Manufacturer to our site (Citizen)

Citizen Women’s Lobella Eco-Drive Solar Watch With Black Strap
Cost: $109.99 (MSRP is $235)
Shipping: FREE

Lobella Eco-Drive Solar Watch

Stricken with elegance and a bold design, this is a solar-powered Citizen watch equipped with a solar cell in the watch dial that converts light energy into electrical energy to power the watch.

Click here for more information about this Citizen Watch

Green Store And More has added some great new items over the last couple of weeks including a great collection of Citizen Eco-Drive Solar Watches. These high quality watches are available at up to $200 below MSRP, and make great gifts.

Citizen has staked out a new position as the leader in Ecologically Friendly timekeeping with its Eco-Drive collection of light powered watches. With models ranging from dress to sport to professional dive watches, Citizen Eco-Drive runs continuously in any kind of natural or artificial light for a lifetime of use. Fueled by light, it never needs a battery. With the introduction of Skyhawk A-T radio controlled atomic-timekeeping flight chronographs, Citizen reaffirmes its position as a leader in timekeeping technology.

UPDATE: I didn’t make it very clear in the original post, but these watches are ‘Green’, because they are solar powered. Standard watch batteries are almost always not rechargeable, so even though they are very small they impact the environment negatively. In addition to this, many old watch batteries are made with mercury, which is very harmful to the environment. Though not as popular as they once were, these mercury batteries are still available in some places and should be avoided at all costs.