A new green iPhone by the end of 2008?

With the familiar hype, the latest "revolutionary" iPhone 3G is released by Apple this Friday. In all the promises of faster, better, cheaper, there's not a peep about it being any greener than the first iPhone.

Well there is a rumour that the iPhone will be partly packaged in potato starch trays instead of plastic. Aside from that rather dull, and un-revolutionary (Motorola already uses them) potato titbit there's no info yet on how green the actual phone will be. The first generation iPhone contained toxic chemicals that competitors like Nokia and Sony Ericsson have already removed from their new phones.

After the successful GreenmyApple campaign Steve Jobs promised all Apple products would be free of toxic PVC plastic and Brominated Flame Retardants:

Apple plans to completely eliminate the use of PVC and BFRs in its products by the end of 2008.
Steve Jobs, May 2007

Apple has recently been making progress towards this goal by using less toxic chemicals in the latest MacBook Air and iMac.

Thousands of people are lusting over the 'Twice as Fast' and 'Half the Price' iPhone 3G, but in some cases less really is more. Dropping the toxic chemicals would really bring Apple closer to being the first electronic company to completely eliminate PVC and BFRs. That's the sort of revolution that's needed.

If it turns out on Friday that the iPhone 3G isn't any greener, no amount of potato packaging will hide the fact that Apple remains behind the competition on toxic chemicals.

Of course we also don't know what Apple's top secret product plans are, but if Steve intends to keep his 'Greener Apple' promise Apple will have to release a greener iPhone by the end of 2008....

tom in GPI