Samsung Greenwashes us with E200 Eco

The latest company to jump on the corn bandwagon, Samsung will unveil its new E200 Eco mobile phone today in Beijing. The phone's entire case will be made entirely from bioplastics - plastics derived from renewable sources such as vegetable oils and starches. Samsung will be using corn starch. This may or may not be a step in the right direction as the biodegradability of bioplastics can vary greatly and corn derived products have not yet been proven to be more eco-friendly (In fact, some argue that they hurt the environment because forests are being cut down to plant corn, which is now a lucrative business).

Along with the W510 and F268, the E200 is the third eco-friendly phone released by Samsung this year. The phones' chargers no longer use an environmentally harmful flame retardant, which is a good thing (as long as there is an eco-friendly retardant in its place). Samsung is also using production techniques that eliminate the need for harmful materials such as lead and cadmium. The F268's charger has an alarm that reminds you to unplug it when the phone is fully charged.

The E200 Eco has a 1.3 megapixel camera and features video messaging. It also has an mp3 player and all the other features you would expect. It also comes in packaging made from recycled materials. Samsung is looking into using bioplastics in other product lines but has no set plans to do so yet. ChiYoung Oh, environmental products manager at Samsung Electronics believes that the "green consumer evolution is maturing in the existing Samsung consumer base.” He also believes customers will be willing to pay more for green products. That is exactly why you must be vigilant and not be sold on a product because it claims to be green or eco-friendly. Hopefully Samsung is genuinely moving to be eco-friendly (and I think they are) and not just greenwashing us to promote sales.

The E200 Eco will be available in Europe next month but has no American release date yet. No word on price either.

[via The New York Times]

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