Bamboo concept phone

In response to an online greener gadgets competition, Dutch designer Gert-Jan van Breugel has conceived a fantastic looking phone with components made from completely recyclable bio-plastic and bamboo.

In his submission Van Breugel quotes some pretty unsettling statistics, including that the environmental impact of making a mobile is 36kg of CO2, and that only about 10% of discarded phones are recycled.

Bamboo is a phone designed to breakdown at the end of its usable life. The bamboo component goes in your compost bin and bamboo seeds inside the case transform it into a plant that will offset the environmental impact of manufacturing the phone.

On top of being a friend of the planet, Bamboo is also quite a sexy handset.

The Bamboo phone flips open for calling. Do you think bamboo splinters hurt more than regular splinters?

It might be time to get back into the gym as the Bamboo phone is charged with "muscle power". Van Breugel estimates three minutes of hand-cranking for every call made. Imagine a train carriage full of businessmen furiously cranking their phones.

An in-depth view of the Bamboo concept phone. The phone is designed to pull apart easily and be completely recycled.