How green is your cell phone?

• Position: ENVIRONMENT

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1 PLASTIC BOTTLES pile up in recycling bins

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2 RECYCLING PLANT turns bottles into plastic flakes.

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3 CELL PHONES are made from the recycled plastic.

For or those who want to reduce their carbon footprint while talking/texting/surfing, the mobile-phone industry is experimenting with ways to make its products greener. "E-waste"--discarded cell phones and other electronic items--is the fastest-growing component of household garbage, with millions of phones winding up in landfills where they can pollute surrounding soil and water with toxic substances like mercury and lead. To help address this problem, Motorola recently introduced a phone made from recycled plastic water bottles, and the phone itself is entirely recyclable. It's packaged in 100 percent recycled paper and includes an envelope for...