Big electronics retailer Bic Camera claims to be the first retailer to join an initiative by the Communications and Information Network Association of Japan (CIAJ) and the Telecommunications Carrier Association (TCA) to collect and recycle discarded mobile phones. Take your old phone to a Bic shop near you, where it'll get put down for good by a drill (to ensure destruction of data) and sent out for recycling of precious metals and other salvageables.

http://www.biccamera.co.jp/shopguide/campaign/cp_recycl/index.html (Japanese)

What's salvageable besides gold and platinum and the like? A working screen, for starters. Enter Plaza Create's use-and-recycle "ECO digi MODE" digital camera, available at some Palette Plaza and 55 Station photo processing shops in Japan. It's a 3-megapixel camera with flash and 2.4-inch LCD panel, that takes up to 50 non-editable shots. (Snap a bad one, and you've got 10 seconds to erase it; otherwise, it stays and counts against your 50.) The cost is JPY1980, which includes burning your photos to CD-ROM after you turn in the camera to a shop. (Printing to paper is available for usual cost.)

What's eco about it all? In the same way that old film-based returnable cameras could have their film replaced for re-use, the ECO digi MODE simply needs its memory erased to be ready for another go. (Side thought: Erasing memory is fortunately easy, but the recyclers will have to be careful to prevent putting even one unerased camera into the next user's hands.) What're more, the LCD panel itself is a recycled part, taken from disassembled mobile phones. Plaza Create says it wants future models to incorporate more recycled parts, including the camera sub-assembly and flash unit, presumably also from mobile phones or discarded pocket cameras.

http://www.plazacreate.co.jp/ecodigi/ (Japanese)

New this month in the Eco digi MODE lineup is a waterproof model, safe up to 3-meter depths; ask for it at a Palette Plaza or 55 Station near you.

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