Staff Techdrunk 
Samsung has announced the planned launch of their latest eco-friendly mobile handsets. The Samsung F268 and Samsung W510 use bio-plastic material made from cornstarch that excludes some environmentally unfriendly materials such as brominated flame retardants and polyvinyl chlorides.
The SCH-W510 ‘Bio Cover Phone’ is a CDMA slider phone and it contains cornstarch for its bio-plastic material used for the phone’s battery cover. It also makes use of an environment friendly metal finishing process, in addition to an anti-bacterial material on its surface.
The SGH-F268 is a sleek GSM handset that has been stripped off brominated flame retardants (BFR) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) to keep harmful materials at bay. This handset is accompanied by an environmental friendly headset and a charger.
According to Geesung Choi (President, Samsung’s Telecommunication Business) “Samsung is striving to continue to be a strong corporate citizen that contributes to environmental sustainability. Now we are trying not only to launch more environmentally-conscious products with more renewable material and less energy consuming, but also to expand and proactively set up a phone recycling system”.
Both handsets are due for a launch later this month with the SGH-F268 heading to the Chinese market first. Samsung also announced that it will stop using BFRs for new models to be developed from 2009 and PVC from 2010.
