One China: One Cell Phone Charger

by Razib Ahmed

China has now the largest number of mobile phone subscribers in the world. Right now, China has nearly 450 million subscribers and nearly 100 million of them are replacing their handsets every year. So, this market is huge indeed. Good for the mobile phone companies but for the country and its people, cell phone is becoming an environmental hazard.

Chinese users are dumping a huge amount of cell phone handsets and chargers everyday. So, government officials have started to feel panicked about the problem. In an effort to reduce waste and environmental pollution, Chinese government is going to introduce the same standard for mobile phone chargers no matter what kind of mobile phone handset you may have.

China Daily reported:

Under the new standard, all mobile phones, regardless of the brand, will be able to share one charger with a USB access, allowing users to charge handsets through laptops.

The unified standard will cut the cost of a new handset and reduce electronic waste and consumption of resources, an MII official said.

The official said no deadline had been set, so as to allow charger makers to adjust their production.

China has almost 450 million cell phone subscribers, with up to 100 million replacing their phones every year. The chargers are often disposed of with the phones.

Under the new standard, cell phone manufactureers are expected to change their sales strategy, putting an end to the package sales of cell phones and chargers to save resources.

This is a smart idea adopted by Chinese government. I think that the governments of India, Russia, Brazil, Japan and USA should adopt this start strategy so that they can reduce waste and environmental pollution. The number of cell phones is increasing very rapidly in the world and within the next one decade, almost every family will own at least one mobile phone set and one charger. So, we should think ahead and act.