What's the greenest way to recharge my gadgets?

As our gizmo intake grows, more eco-friendly recharging options are emerging. Check them out, says Adam Vaughan

Adam Vaughan
The Observer, Sunday 26 April 2009

By 2010 our addiction to everything from iPhones to PSPs is set to make gadgets the biggest consumers of electricity in our homes (www.tinyurl.com/2010gadgets). Much of that energy demand - and CO2 emissions - will come from portable gizmos. Mobile phones in the UK already outnumber the population, while last year laptop sales overtook desktop computer sales globally for the first time (www.tinyurl.com/laptopsales). This love affair with electronica results in huge waste as well as electricity guzzling: in the UK alone, we chuck 600m batteries in landfill each year.
So what's to be done to reduce the environmental impact? Start by changing your phone-recharging habits. The savings from switching off a phone charger when it's not in use are tiny, but still worth considering when you're buying a new phone. Before you buy, check how the phone's charger ranks on an energy rating table (www.tinyurl.com/mobchargers). There are also a bunch of universal "eco chargers", but because the energy savings from them are so miniscule they're only worth buying if your existing charger dies. Buying an eco charger when you've got a usable but profligate charger will emit more carbon than it saves.
Laptops are trickier. As Jim Tulley, chief of research at Gartner, points out, the widespread switch from nickel-cadmium batteries to modern lithium-ion ones means there's no benefit in running a battery flat before recharging it. One option is to look for a laptop with a long-lasting battery, like HP-compatible Sonata batteries, which are guaranteed to last three years.
Mobile and laptop batteries should be recycled once they're exhausted. Contrary to popular myth, the rechargeable batteries in our Nokias and MacBooks can be easily recycled. For other gadgets, such as digital cameras, switching from conventional AAs to rechargeable AAs makes both financial and eco sense. If you're a heavy computer user, UBSCell batteries (www.usbcell.com) recharge from a PC's USB port, meaning you can even ditch the battery charger module (and the carbon used to manufacture it).
Thanks to renewable energy, we're almost on the cusp of being able to ditch mains sockets entirely. While hand-held solar chargers such as the Solio and Freeloader don't have large enough solar panels to act as a reliable power source for your phone even in the UK's sunniest months, newer and more expensive solar chargers such as the Solar Monkey are getting close to being viable for daily charging.
Beyond solar, wind-up chargers are already on sale, prototype refillable fuel cells are doing the rounds and a new generation of silver zinc laptop batteries promise increased recycled rates. While betting on a techno fix to greenify our charging habits is risky, it's probably still a more attractive wager than waiting for an end to our love affair with gadgets.
• Lucy Siegle is back next week
adam.vaughan@observer.co.uk