Sprint goes greener with Samsungs eco-Phone

In a press release on Sprints website the wireless provider will begin offering Samsungs' Reclaim beginning August 16th.

The eco-friendly smart phone will be available at a starting price of $49.99 (with a 2 year plan, and $80 in available rebates). Sprint will also "donate" $2.00 from the purchase to The Nature Conservancy's Adopt an Acre program.

What makes the Reclaim eco-friendly?

Below is a list of eco-friendly claims from the Sprint press release

• Its bio-plastic material, made from corn, makes up 40 percent of the Reclaim's outer casing. Samsung Reclaim is free of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), phthalates, and nearly free of brominated flame retardants (BFR): three materials commonly targeted on green electronics guidelines.
• The outer packaging and the phone tray inside the box are made from 70 percent recycled materials. The images and text on the box as well as the phone warranty information are printed with soy-based ink.
• The typical thick paper user manual has been replaced with a virtual manual that users can access at www.sprint.com/reclaimsupport.
• The charger is Energy Star approved for meeting the highest energy efficiency standards set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy. It consumes 12 times less power than the Energy Star standard for standby power consumption and is equipped with a visible notification to alert the user to unplug the handset once it's fully charged.

According to Greenpeace corporate "line-up" page Samsung is in second place behind Nokia in the 'Guide to Greener Electronics'.

More on Sprints go-green initiatives can be seen on their Sustainability site. Unfortunately I was unable to find any information on the Samsung site about the Reclaim. At least I managed to find an image of the phone on the Sprint website.

If there is one thing you can say about this phone, it is definitely GREEN!