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fair trade cellphones

"Fair Trade certified Cellphones"
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We have fair trade diamonds, fair trade coffee, etc, but people are still being killed, forced to labor under grossly unsafe conditions at the behest of thugs, and generally taken advantage of for the metals found in cellphones. I would like to see a cellphone company introduce "conflict-free" cellphones, so people can buy them with a clear conscience.
Alex Yeh, Nov 16 2006

coltan, cassiterite, heterogenite mining in Congo http://www.alternet.org/story/41477/
Background. [jutta, Nov 16 2006]

Fairphone http://www.fairphone.com/
"Fairphone is a social enterprise. We started in 2010 as an awareness project about conflict minerals in electronics and the wars that the sourcing of these minerals is fuelling [...] The campaign ran for 3 years before Fairphone realized that to uncover the story behind the sourcing, production, distribution and recycling, we needed to make the phone." [Wrongfellow, Jun 03 2013]

[link]






       Thanks for the link, jutta; that gives a good overview of the situation. It's just amazing how the cellphone market has exploded; I remember when they were just an obscure idea printed in science magazines.
Alex Yeh, Nov 17 2006
  

       Good idea
hippo, Nov 17 2006
  

       Excellent.
jtp, Nov 17 2006
  

       Very intricate and complicated supply chain, but the transparency movement and related movements really need a technical challenge on this scale to get their game in gear for the rest of the 21st century. Really.
LoriZ, Feb 27 2012
  

       For seberal years now i've been trying to get an "ethical periodic table" together, but it would have to be relativist i think, which complicates it. It clearly is possible to make an analogue radio without using distant sources of material and i think it probably would involve reinventing the wheel, which I see as a good thing.
nineteenthly, Feb 27 2012
  
      
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