revOlve - 1st Place - Artist/Designer Category - 2010 Int'l eWaste Design Competition

eWaste Competition website:
http://ewaste.illinois.edu/

Team's School: Rochester Institute of Technology, New York

Project Description: We perceive the idea of creating a product out of existing e-waste as a temporary solution to a greater problem. Rather than making a product out of existing e-waste, our approach was to attempt to reduce the problem of e-waste, itself.

Through our research, we decided that mobile phones are an increasing e-waste problem. The average American replaces their mobile phone every 12-18 months, resulting in the disposal of over 150 million mobile phones annually.

Most of these discarded phones still function properly.

Over 90% of these discarded phones are merely thrown away. Out of the small percentage that make it to recycling facilities, about 65% can be refurbished and the remaining 35% recycled.

With over 400,000 mobile phones discarded daily, we decided to design a phone one would be more likely to keep.

Our approach to ameliorate this growing problem evolved from focusing on two stages of the product lifecycle—use and disposal. Use, in the sense of duration the phone is used before the consumer replaces it, and disposal with considerations of how the phone could be easily disassembled into its constituent parts by either the consumer or the commercial recycler.

With goals to slow the disposable attitude towards mobile phone use, we began to evaluate the products we have kept for a long period of time, we established that most of these products were simple, well-designed products that we grew emotionally attached to. Everyone in our group also kept a product on their person that they could play with throughout the day, like VW keys, a retractable pen, etc. During our ideation phase multiple members of our group sketched out mobile phones with a hole for utilitarian and playful purposes.

The hole in the phone provides the proper geometry for a human powered induction generator that charges the phone when spun around your finger.

The quality, texture, utility, and overall feel of the ring creates a point of interest—a physical interface and attachment encouraging the user to play with and value the phone more as a sentimental belonging rather than a transient electronic device.

The mode of disassembly is designed to be intuitive and non-threatening to the user in order to make them more familiar with the construction of their phone. The removal of the shell requires no tools and is designed to be ergonomic, intuitive, and convenient. By making access to the battery and SIM card the same action as preliminary disassembly for recycling, the user becomes familiar with the process and will be more likely to take part in the first stage of recycling by removing and recycling the shell and battery before recycling the core of the phone, thereby easing the process at the recycling facility.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• ewaste
• mobile
• phones
• recycling

[happinesson]

revolve!The next generation recycled cellphone!

[kevinerg0824]

not a good design.

[mshemgotbanned]

I'd hit it.

[AndyLaRue11]

thanks for the tip on wysips!!!!

[justanotherfreak2008]

Forget about this. "Wysips" is the total future and XXI century. Wysips built and presented a photovoltaic TRANSPARENT and SUPER CHEAP foil which charges phones/tablets and can be applied on cell phone screen as one of layers. Forget wall chargers or gadgets like this. Just type wysips in google and read about what's coming to the market!

[swimomatic]

To everyone who asks what song this is, have you ever heard of Shazam?

(Geomatrix by Anthony Rother)

[errorcode99]

MEATSPIN?????

[Djhg2000]

So essentially you'd just replace the guts of your phone?

That has been tried many times before and failed.

In the end you'd just be tied to a single vendor which harms development, unless the hardware is well documented enough for any vendor to join in. And then you'd be better off with this being an accessory for regular phones.

I appreciate the effort but the harsh reality is that it won't work.

[zubrick12]

what's the music??

[mr2ange]

Genius Idea, should really be popular I hope!

Something that I can upgrade components, rather than chucking in the bin. Especially if you could opt for a super-low-power version, or super high spec...

Also the charge function would become so valuable in the midst of a bad situation!