Who can honestly say they unplug the charger from the outlet when the phone charge is complete?  Can you? Or are you one of many who plug their phone into the charger overnight so a fully charged battery is immediately available in the morning—and then leave the charger plugged in even after the phone is unplugged?

If so, you are wasting watts—and that translates into wasted money and unneeded carbon emissions. Cell phone chargers consume energy even after the phone charge is complete and the phone is unplugged. This may not run up a significant electricity bill for an individual but, considering the millions of cell phone chargers probably operating at this very moment and the 3 billion phones in the world, the total waste is excessive. With all the smart phones, where are the smart chargers?

LG, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, and Samsung have joined together to raise awareness of how chargers waste energy when left plugged in even when the phones have been unplugged. As a part of this campaign, these companies have come up with a rating system for a charger’s level of energy efficiency.  A charger that uses 0.03 watts or less will get a 5-star rating, while a charger that uses more than 0.05 watts will get no stars.

According to a Nokia spokesperson, if all of the 3 billion or so phones were charged with a charger rated at 5 or even 4 stars, the amount of energy saved yearly would be as much as is “produced by two medium-sized power plants.”

Of course, you don’t need a new and fancy charger to keep green. And there’s no need for smart chargers when there are smart cell phone owners. You can be a smart cell phone owner by remembering not to leave the phone charging any longer than is needed and to unplug the charger from the socket when you unplug your cell phone.

And if you liked this article you can find more articles and videos for Bell Mobility users at http://cellarama.com/articles/ – At http://cellarama.com you’ll also find great contract-free cell phones for Bell Mobility.  Written by A. Thompson.