Newton's Laws

Author: Thomas Newton

In a move that would seem to be stereotypical of the communist People's Republic of China, a new regulation has been passed to standardize the mobile phone chargers used in the country. One might say that this regulation is just an example of the Chinese government flexing its muscle over its citizens, but the truth of the matter is that the decision to standardize the chargers is logical, and is an example of a small technological policy change that can have great effects.

In China, the land of 1.3 billion citizens, there are close to 450 million cell phone subscribers, with 100 million of those subscribers upgrading their phones every year, according to The People's Daily. The move to standardize chargers and sell them separately would therefore save around 100 million cell phone chargers from being thrown away each year. Aside from reducing electronic waste and saving the resources that would have been used in the charger's production, the regulation will also save Chinese cell phone manufacturers around 2.4 billion yuan (306 million USD) per year.

In South Korea, a similar measure has been taken, but one that reflects the more capitalist economy of South Korea as the decision was made as an agreement between the country's three major mobile phone companies. These companies, SK Telecom, KTF and LG Telecom, have agreed to a Memorandum of Understanding stating that they will standardize the ports on their phones for both charging and data exchange. They believe that the standardization will increase sales of accessories, and, in turn, increase profits.

Whatever the motive, the standardization of cell phone chargers and ports makes a world of sense and the United States would be ignorant to not follow in the footsteps of China and South Korea. We could reduce our electronic waste, save resources and help the economy. Not too bad for a simple change in market strategy. Simply selling a standardized charger rather than including one in the box can accomplish all of these lofty goals - impressive, right?

Considering that this small change could have such a large impact, especially in regard to the amount of electronic waste produced and resources saved, it isn't too hard to imagine that there are more simple, almost blindingly obvious ways in which we could reduce our environmental pollution.

Standardizing phone chargers is an ingeniously simple solution with gigantic beneficial repercussions. The United States and all of the world's developed countries need to perform some serious house cleaning, not only with electronics and its waste, but with all products. Some possible policies could be the reduction of packaging used thereby saving paper and plastic, turning off half of the street lights in the middle of the night, creating a universal standard for charging electronics and setting up more efficient and effective recycling centers for all forms of waste. Something small, like China's standardization of cell phone chargers, shows us that even simple changes can be effective in reducing waste and that we need to look at ourselves and our habits to see what can be improved.