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According to a report in Computerworld, the "W510 is the first mobile phone Samsung has ever made using the new corn-based plastic. Samsung said it did not use heavy metals such as lead, mercury or cadmium in the handset, either. The company has been also working on the new plastic as a way to produce more environmentally friendly materials".

This is not the first time electronics companies have worked tried corn-based plastics. NEC and Fujitsu have tried to replace petroleum-based plastics in products such as laptop PCs and mobile phones and the idea of using corn-based plastics has been around for many years, with interest reignited recently by the growing price of oil.

The second corn-based handset from Samsung, the F268, includes an alarm on the charger to alert users when the battery is fully charged.

The report notes that the company has also made sure accessories for the F268 did not contain PVC (polyvinyl chloride) or BFRs (brominated flame retardants), chemicals used to make it hard for products to catch fire but that may be contaminating the environment.

The W510 will be launched in Korea in June, while the F268 will hit China at about the same time, the report noted.