HOW SUSTAINABLE IS YOUR SMARTPHONE?

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By Manuel Suter

Every student has at least one smartphone and one notebook. Life without them would be unimaginable. Very few people know what environmental and social impacts the production of electronic products have. We are changing this with this article.

Enormous amounts of e-waste and little recycling

In 2019, a record of 53.6 million tonnes (Mt) of e-waste (computers, mobile phones, etc.) has been generated worldwide.[1] Such a big number is hard to grasp. Perhaps the following comparison will help you: 53.6 million tonnes equal the weight of 5’360 Eiffel Towers.

Only 17.4% of this e-waste was officially documented as formally collected and recycled in 2019.[1]     

What is the situation in Denmark with regard to e-waste? Denmark has a high recycling rate of 54%.[1] However, Denmark produces on average 22.4 kilograms per capita. [1] Only Norway (26 kg per capita), the United Kingdom (23.9 kg per capita) and Switzerland (23.4 kg per capita) produce more e-waste than Denmark.[1]

It is predicted, that the global e-waste will reach 74 Mt by 2030 (almost double as much as in 2014), driven by higher consumption, shorter lifecycles and limited repair options.[1]  

But what is the problem with e-waste and the previous process steps anyway? Let us take the smartphone as an example to better understand the social and environmental issues.

The international, resource-intensive and non-transparent value chain of a smartphone

It takes 62 different metals on average to build a smartphone, including cobalt, gold, and rare-earth metals.[2] Many hundreds of components are involved, and the sourcing, processing, and assembling of these components take place across the globe. This leads to a large and complex supply chain with overlooked or ignored ethical concerns: For example, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) supplies more than 50% of the world's cobalt supply.[3] Much of it is mined by the estimated 40,000 child labourers in that country.[3]

Afterwards, the minerals are processed and assembled into smartphone components. This too often takes place under ethically questionable conditions, as reports from factories in Vietnam[4] and China[5] show. At the end of their life cycle, smartphones often end up in e-waste dumps in low-income countries such as China, Ghana, India or Pakistan.[6] In these countries the e-waste is frequently burned, which causes dangerous pollutants for the surrounding environment and the bodies of workers.  

Beyond that, scientists have warned, that some of the resources used to make smartphones are becoming increasingly scarce due to a limited supply, their location in conflict zones and the lack of recycling.[7]

The existing supply chains for smartphones make it literally impossible to produce an ethically sourced smartphone. Even the company Fairphone, which has the explicit goal of developing an ethical smartphone, has acknowledged that developing a 100% fair phone is impossible.[8]

Solution approaches at the consumption level

What can you do to help address this problem? Ask sellers or smartphone brands directly how ecological the production of a particular smartphone was and under what social conditions it was produced. This shows them that there is a large consumer demand for buying ethical smartphones. In addition, it makes sense to use your smartphone as long as possible. Your current smartphone is the most sustainable smartphone you can have. In case your current smartphone is broken or you are unhappy with its condition, we have put together a graphic to help you (can be used for any electronic devices):

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Jens Wahlgren