Here are some nifty ideas, taken from the October 2008 issue of Oprah, on how to turn your cell phone greener (and no, it doesn’t involved buying a new green faceplate. That’s for St-Patrick’s Day, not for the environment).

1. Hit the Right Note: Why settle for a simple brrnnnng when your phone can chirp like a Gila woodpecker or giggle like a panda bear? Visit www.rareearthtones.org to download free ringtones reproducing the sounds of these endangered species and more, courtesy of the Center for Biological Diversity.

2. Waste not: If you have an old cell phone gathering dust in a drawer, you are not alone: some 100 million phones languish unused in the United States, and recycling them would conserve enough energy to power nearly 200,000 homes for a year. To find out more, or to learn how to recycle yours, visit www.epa.gov/cellphones.

For more on recycling cell phones in Canada, visit: http://www.charitablerecycling.ca.

For more on Oprah (as if everyone doesn’t know her already), visit: http://www.oprah.com.