Hop-On Hops Back On the PR Bandwagon

I thought CNN's gushing forth of breathless admiration in today's piece: 'Disposable cell phones on the way' sounded familiar. Yep, it's Hop-On, the same company Slashdotters took to task last March ('Disposable' Cell Phone Actually Repackaged Nokia) after reading the San Francisco Chronicle's expose ("Sample 'new' cell phone really just modified Nokia [8260]"). Maybe this time the technology is for real. Or maybe I'm just too skeptical for my own good. Caveat lector.

Comments

Parent is dead on--mod up

[InterruptDescriptorT]

The parent is exactly right.

Exactly what America does not need is another throwaway item. Like the wrappers on food, aluminum cans and plastic bottles from the carbonated beverages they consume, these cellphones will just become another disposable tchotche to strain America's already overflowing landfills.

And it's not as if making them recyclable will help. Americans have no taste for recycling or reuse--everything has to be new (just look at the booming sales of new garish SUVs). Even if you could recycle 100% of the new phone, I wouldn't expect to see it in American's blue boxes. It's so much easier to just throw it out and buy another one.

This whole disposable cell phone thing is just symptomatic of an American culture that will overuse whatever resources it can get its hands on--lumber from Canada and its own old-growth forests, fossil fuels like it was going out of style, food, etc. And this thing just makes me shake my head, wonder if Americans will ever learn to respect the environment they are cultured to plunder, and pray for our fragile Earth.