Design for Environment (DfE)

There are now more than seven billion mobile phones in the world and only 1.3 billion users. Many older phones are left in drawers rather than being recycled. Between 20 and 90 million phones are thought to be lying around in the UK alone.

Only 10-15% of mobile phones are recycled. The phones are first shredded (left) and the metals, including silver and gold, are extracted and resold. The remaining waste (right) is often incinerated

New European guidelines coming into force later in the year will require industry and consumers to reduce the waste from electrical devices. This printer ribbon for example is made entirely of recycled phone parts

Biodegradable phone covers developed by Warwick University in the UK contain sunflower seeds and can be planted in the garden Technology giant NEC has already incorporated green design into some of its phones. This model has a biodegradable cover and is currently only available in Japan

The US poultry industry produces more than a billion kilograms of feathers every year. The University of Delaware has combined some of these with soy bean to create an environmentally friendly circuit board for mobiles Everyday household products can even be used in mobiles. Here, the Welding Institute in the UK shows how lasagne sheets can be used as a circuit board. Eventually they hope to use chitin, a starch-based compound found in shellfish

Oxis Energy is a company trying to develop new designs that remove the need for heavy metals and toxic chemicals. This is a prototype of a lithium sulphide battery

The Dead Ringers exhibition opens on the 29 March and runs for six months at the Science Museum in London

Reusing PET

PET Project by Miwa Koizumi