Is Your Smart Phone's Tin Case Destroying the Entire Earth?

The iPhone and the Samsung phone (sPhone?) are very good technological devices primarily because they have shiny metal on the backside, underneath the plastic case you bought to protect the shiny metal from smudges or scratches. But is the mining of this metal destroying a beautiful Eden-like Indonesian island? Probably! Friends of the Earth did a six-month-long investigation (PDF) of the Appalachian-style tin mining operations on Bangka Island, where a massive industrial operation is “destroying forests, farmland and coral reefs, injuring miners and driving away fish and marine life.” All so you can put an “Otterbox” over the shiny metal!

Apple and Samsung “neither confirmed nor denied this,” according to the meddling environmental group. So … feel vaguely guilty about your tin smart phone, we guess? On the next Black Friday, maybe you can buy a smart phone made completely of organic garbage.