How many times has it happened to you? Needing to recharge your mobile phone while on the go, while nobody around had a compatible charger for your specific model or brand? Or how about the old chargers you discarded when bought that new cell phone and gave the old one the boot? Finally a solution has been brought to the table, a universal charger standard that will solve these day to day problems, but perhaps most importantly reduce manufacturing waste and consumption.

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) that comprises of several nations and manufacturers in the sector recently announced they have put their stamp of approval in a one-size-fits-all solution to mobile phone chargers. Based on the Micro-USB interface, the Universal Charging Solution (UCS) will enable the same charger to be used on all future handsets, regardless of make and model.

The proposed chargers were designed to save energy by cutting up to 50 percent of standby energy consumption. The ITU also expects to decrease 13.6 million tonnes in greenhouse gas emissions each year due to the elimination of 51,000 tonnes of redundant chargers.