EcoShield Your iProducts
by Jaymi Heimbuch, San Francisco, California 
on 11.14.08
Photo via Agent 18
Protecting your gadgets is a big part of making them last as long as possible and helping to prevent e-waste. Considering the reputation Apple products have for unfixability, keeping them safe is a priority. One of the greener options for your iPhone or iPod Touch is the EcoShield.
Produced by Agent 18, the cases are made from recycled plastic bottles and protect your Apple gadgets from bumps and scratches. The packaging is also made from recycled materials. However, specifics for percentage of recycled materials used and how recycleable the case is are slim.
Ranging from $15 to $30 depending on the gadget you’re purchasing it for, the EcoShield looks like a fairly green option to make your gadget last. Of course, there are some great DIY ideas that are even greener, too.
More on Making Gadgets Last:
Protect Your iPod nano with Recycled Cassette Tapes
22 Fix-It Videos: Prevent E-Waste, Save Money, and Keep Your Stuff
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Seeing as how "making it last as long as possible" is absolutely not a consideration when making these things, it seems to me that the greenest option for this i-crap is not to buy it in the first place.
I wonder about Apple's reputation for unfixability. My 60 year old mother makes a hobby (and a little extra income) of buying up broken iPods and MacBooks and reselling them at a small profit on eBay. She's a lot more mechanically skilled than I am, but most of the time it looks like all it takes is a part and a little solder and enough patience to figure out what's wrong with them in the first place.
Recycle your broken iPods... send them to my mom.
@ Patrick - Lovely how you all say the greenest option is to just not buy. Well guess what, bud: This isn't going to happen. So how about you quit griping about people who buy them, and be happy that at least there is a more eco-friendly option available. Do you honestly think you or anyone is going to stop consumer demand, and for the iphone, none the less. Hell no. I'm tired of hearing that the most green option is not just not buy shit, because on the whole that philosophy is very impractical. Give credit to those who put fourth effort to try and green up the current products out there that are inevitably going to be bought.
I find it a bit strange Apples marketing thought the look of the case would be a big selling point, but I rarely see an iPod outside of a store not in a case.
Everyone complains that they scratch so easily, so they buy a case. Wouldn't a less cool but more scratch resistant case make more sense?
Sure, not buying an iPod isn't practical (well, I don't own one, but most people do) buy why buy something only to have to buy something else to make up for the "bad" design?