Sony joins O2 campaign to slash number of unused phone chargers
Green IT news – by Saran Mishra
28th May 2013
Sony has become the latest major manufacturer to join O2’s campaign to rid the market of unnecessary mobile phone chargers.
Sony has joined manufacturers HTC and Nokia which have already signed up to the O2 initiative, called ‘Charger out of the box’. The campaign aims to take all chargers out of new phone boxes by 2015, as they are a gigantic environmental waste issue for the industry.
“Networks and handset manufacturers have to take a lead on this area and so we were eager to run a trial with one of our leading smartphones,” she said.
O2 phone charger research
From this month, Sony is piloting its Xperia SP phones sold by O2 with the USB to micro-USB cable, but without a charger. If it works, it will look at rolling out the initiative more widely, said Catherine Cherry, marketing director for North West Europe at Sony.
“Networks and handset manufacturers have to take a lead on this area and so we were eager to run a trial with one of our leading smartphones,” she said.
O2 phone charger research
Research by O2 suggests that there are as many as 100 million unused chargers in the UK — a total of 18,700 tonnes of components that weigh as much as 1,000 London buses — that have a large environmental cost. The 124,274 miles of copper wire and plastic covering in chargers that are already in consumers’ hands would equate to a volume landfill the size of four Olympic swimming pools if discarded.
‘Charger out of the box’ has already motivated Nokia to announce the new Lumia 925 will be sold without chargers included on O2 when it launches in June.
O2 ceo Ronan Dunne said that if other manufacturers and the other networks were to get behind the scheme, there would be a huge difference more-or-less overnight and at next to no cost to customers.
“Sony backing our campaign is a major step towards making chargers out of the box the norm in the UK and I very much hope that we will see others joining us over the course of this year,” he said.
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‘Charger out of the box’ has already motivated Nokia to announce the new Lumia 925 will be sold without chargers included on O2 when it launches in June.
O2 ceo Ronan Dunne said that if other manufacturers and the other networks were to get behind the scheme, there would be a huge difference more-or-less overnight and at next to no cost to customers.
HTC trial
The move by Sony follows the successful trial of two HTC handsets, where 82 per cent of customers of these products bought the handset without chargers, and chose existing equipment.
“As an industry, we have a duty to our customers to behave in a way that is environmentally responsible, making us businesses leaders in sustainability,” Dunne said.
“As an industry, we have a duty to our customers to behave in a way that is environmentally responsible, making us businesses leaders in sustainability,” Dunne said.
Though some might find the initiative to be a cause of inconvenience, O2 has said that at least 70 per cent of all existing mobile phone owners now have the interchangeable USB charging units that can be used with almost any handset.
It believes because of an over-saturated market, chargers should no longer be included in the 30 million new phones that are sold every year.
The ‘Charger out of the box’ campaign comes in the wake of a decision by mobile phone makers,with the exception of Apple, to create a single universal charger by January 2012.
The ‘Charger out of the box’ campaign comes in the wake of a decision by mobile phone makers,with the exception of Apple, to create a single universal charger by January 2012.
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There could be as many as 100 million unused mobile phone chargers in the UK
