This is how badly smartphones are doing to the climate

Thursday was Verfone 4 Foot. The fourth generation of smartphones from the Dutch manufacturer, like its predecessors, represents a modular build and ease of repair. If one of the internal components, such as the battery, is broken, the user can replace it himself. You can save on expensive repairs and you don’t have to replace the entire device.

This fact is coupled with 5 years warranty And years of updates to Android should mean Fairphone 4 can be used for as long as possible. according to European Environment Office (EEB), smartphones are used in the European Union for an average of 3 years. After that, they are replaced with new equipment, only 1 in 5 is recycled. Most of the rest ends up in landfills as e-waste.

high power output

This is a growing problem to combat climate change. A lot of energy, which often comes from fossil sources, must be used to produce smartphones. In addition, a lot of raw materials are needed. Some of them are obtained using a lot of energy and chemicals that are harmful to the environment. material like Cobalt or gold They often come from mines in developing countries, where people toil under unimaginable working conditions.

“Smartphones are not a seasonal product that can be replaced with a new one after a short time,” says Vaughn. green area. “The consumption of resources, the use of energy and the work that goes into each device is enormous. Before a smartphone lands on us, its components pass through hundreds of hands and travel multiple times around the world.”

Extended usage period

Ensures the production and operation of smartphones in Europe 14 million tons Greenhouse gas emissions annually. This is more than Latvia emits. If you are only going to extend the service life of smartphones by one year, you can do it every year 2 million tons Save emissions. That would correspond to the exhaust gases of 430 thousand cars. However, manufacturers are promoting the rapid replacement of devices with annually updated production lines. But mobile service providers are also playing their part, for example with their tariffs promising customers a new smartphone every two years.

according to Study from Canada In general, greenhouse gas emissions from the ICT sector are increasing rapidly. By 2040 it should be 14 percent of all global emissions. The share of smartphone production in this is several times greater than that of other electronic products such as personal computers or laptops. in a 1.4 billion smartphones are sold annually This is not surprising all over the world.

There are also good sides

In addition to the production of mobile phones, their operation is also harmful to the climate, albeit on a much smaller scale. Such as network equipment supplier Ericsson describes in a studyIn the process, one has to take into account the power consumption of the terminal devices, cellular network infrastructure and data centers. Six years of smartphone use generates roughly the same amount of greenhouse gas emissions as a flight ticket from London to Barcelona and back.

On the other hand, smartphones can also help avoid emissions during operation – for example, when people use app navigation services instead of driving their own cars. Business meetings via video chat or smart home apps that help lower heating costs, for example, can help slow climate change. In addition to contributing to digitization, smartphones can also replace other devices that have been produced and additionally purchased for a long time, such as music players or cameras.

Consumer power

Ultimately, it is up to consumers to contribute to keeping the adverse climate impact of smartphones as low as possible. environmental authorities We advise, for example, to handle the device and its battery with care, to repair it rather than replace it, and to dispose of it properly.

If you bring smartphones too Waste collection centersAt least some of it can be recycled. However, in many cases, old cell phones end up in the drawer and are forgotten. You can also give away or sell it. Instead of using a new smartphone, you canrenovated“, any used and refurbished devices, are valid.