Calling All Environmentalists

Sprint is sprinting to go green, and Samsung is singing along. The two companies teamed to introduce the Samsung Reclaim, a cell phone made, in part, of corn-derived “bio-plastics.” The marketing campaign includes statements that the handset is 80 percent recyclable and comes in “fully recyclable packaging,” neither of which is too impressive a claim.

However, the feature-rich device does boast legitimate earth-saving facets: The box is 70 percent recycled and printed with soy-based ink. The manual is only available online. The charger is Energy Star-approved, and lets you know with a light when it’s ready to unplug. It’s PVC- and phthalate-free. And $2 of the proceeds from each sale goes toward land conservation.

--Avital Binshtock