How sustainable is your smartphone?

Our smartphones rule our lives. For most people, it’s the first thing they see in the morning and the last thing to see before going to sleep. Researchers go so far to say that our smartphones make us sick. 80 percent of smartphone users are suffering from “cyber-sickness”. But we are not the only ones to get sick from smartphones, so does the earth.

The manufacturing footprint of 80 million iPhone 6 phones is greater than the carbon footprint of three central areas of London – over 770’000 people and all their business activities included. But it does not stop with the manufacturing, carbon footprints are made throughout

the life cycle of a phone and of course, when we dump it. And oh boy, that’s when the tragedy reaches its peak. In the year 2010, over 135 million phones were thrown in the trash. 14-17% of this number is recycled, even though 70% of the cellphones would have the potential to be reused. You might wonder what happens to the rest, well, most of them land in so called e-waste dumps. One of these dumps is located in Agbogblshie, Ghana. This place is also called the world’s electronic graveyard. Here, everything that doesn’t get recycled is burnt down. The mountains of electronic waste pollute the local water and air; consequently it harms the health of the (often cheap) labor and local residents. Besides that, chemicals such as chlorofluorocarbon are released and thus damage the ozone layer.

So what can we do about it? Stop using smartphones? In today’s world that seems impossible. I started looking for a solution and I would say I found an alternative: “FairPhone”.

This company works towards four main goals, which is to produce smartphones that have a long-lasting design, use fair materials, are produced under good working conditions and can be reused and recycled. I was surprised by the quality of their products but also the company’s transparency and effort to make smartphones a little more sustainable.

My next phone will definitely be a FairPhone and you should consider too. And no, this is not a paid advertisement ;)

It seems there are solutions for our smartphone problems. Well, at least for the sustainability part; the cyber-sickness? That’s another story.

Sources:

Akbar, A., (2015, April 23). Where your computer goes to die: Shocking pictures of the toxic 'electronic graveyards' in Africa where the West dumps its old PCs, laptops, microwaves, fridges and phones. Retrieved April 05, 2017, from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3049457/Where-computer-goes-die-Shocking-pictures-toxic-electronic-graveyards-Africa-West-dumps-old-PCs-laptops-microwaves-fridges-phones.html

Bates, D., (2015, November 17). Do you suffer from 'cybersickness'? Phenomenon causes nausea while scrolling on phones and watching action films. Retrieved April 05, 2017, from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3322370/Do-suffer-cybersickness-Phenomenon-causes-nausea-scrolling-phones-watching-action-films.html

Our goals. (n.d.). Retrieved April 05, 2017, from https://www.fairphone.com/en/our-goals/

The Electronic Waste Crisis: Cell Phones Facts. (2017, March 22). Retrieved April 05, 2017, from https://planetgreenrecycle.com/fundraising/e-waste/the-electronic-waste-crisis-cell-phones-facts-and-figures

The footprint of those iPhones. (2015, April 14). Retrieved April 05, 2017, from https://therestartproject.org/consumption/the-footprint-of-those-iphones/

Sources Pictures:

Akbar, A., (2015, April 23). Where your computer goes to die: Shocking pictures of the toxic 'electronic graveyards' in Africa where the West dumps its old PCs, laptops, microwaves, fridges and phones. Retrieved April 05, 2017, from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3049457/Where-computer-goes-die-Shocking-pictures-toxic-electronic-graveyards-Africa-West-dumps-old-PCs-laptops-microwaves-fridges-phones.html