Cell phones pushing up daisies
I heard a story out of the corner of my right ear yesterday while listening to Limbaugh that the folk at livedigitally.com fleshed out this morning. Over in England, seems that some researchers are developing a special composite polymer to use in place of plastics in your cell phone. Plastic, as I'm sure you realize, have a half-life close to that of the sun so, when they get into a landfill, well, let's just say they could be ringing in the new year for quite some time to come. But wait! These new polymers are biodegradable! They break down (composte) much, much, much more quickly than plastics. But wait again! Embedded in the polymer is a flower seed and, once the material turns to composte, expectations are that the seed will germinate and sprout.

BTW: The image I'm using over there is courtesy livedigitally.com. Now, I certainly respect the folk over there. They conclude: "Innovations such as these should be heavily applauded, we have to think a lot about all the long-term impact of the gadgets we buy. With any luck, the costs for this technology won't be too prohibitive to prevent all the major cell manufacturers to start using it soon. Who knows, maybe flower seeds are the next ringtone?" It's a good underlying thought, but, in the rush to praise the process, it's possible that they missed a few things.

Right now, if you dispose of your cellphone properly, the plastics are reclaimed --as are the lead, tin, and copper in the electronics, by recyclers. (Admittedly, in most cases they're ending up in landfills because we just trash them.) The polymer case, etc., doesn't account for the heavy metals in the electronics of the phone. I would have to wonder, in the area of private composting, how much of those heavy metals then end up in your vegetable garden --and your vegetables. I'm also perplexed as to why growing a daisy (if indeed it does grow, which, you backyard gardeners know, doesn't always happen), is such a big deal in a composte heap or a landfill.

Don't get me wrong, this is a great start --to something. I'm just unwilling to grant it "accomplishment" status just yet.

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