Business PickupIn recent years, estimates have shown that more than half the world’s population owns a smartphone. As of 2023, statistics show that figure could be even higher — closer to 86%, or nearly seven billion people across the globe. While these devices put tremendous power at our fingertips, they also create complex environmental challenges. There’s no quick and easy solution for managing the issues of smartphone pollution, but there are tangible ways to control their impact on the planet. Here’s a closer look into how smartphones are affecting the environment and what we can do to mitigate the damage.
The Far-Reaching Implications of Smartphone Manufacturing
The processes involved with manufacturing smartphones account for 85% of the devices’ carbon footprint, with emissions coming from metal extraction as well as production and shipping. Smartphone production also requires a large volume of natural resources: up to 70 elements (80% of the periodic table) may be used. Roughly half of the device is made from plastic and silicone, while copper, aluminum, and metal are the most common metals used.
Mining for the metals used in smartphones takes a major toll on the environment, leading to issues like deforestation across virtually every area of the globe. According to 2021 research, mining activities surged over the past 20 years and have had a detrimental impact on local ecosystems.
Alarmingly, more than half of mining sites are located near protected environments, nearly all of which are experiencing water scarcity. Water is a major resource used during mining for activities like mineral processing and dust suppression. To make matters worse, mining activities can pollute the local water systems that are already vulnerable. The materials left over from processing ore, known as tailings, can pollute nearby ecosystems, as seen in the Jagersfontein dam collapse in South Africa which led to significant pollution as well as human and animal deaths. Mining activities are also responsible for the destruction of the Amazon rainforest in Venezuela and violence against indigenous people in Brazil.
Damage from mining activities isn’t the only environmental issue caused by smartphone production, however. Manufacturing facilities also generate immense heat and are usually located in areas already heavily affected by climate change, including China, Vietnam, and India.
Smartphone Recycling: Another Major Challenge
Beyond manufacturing challenges, what happens to smartphones when they reach the end of their lifespan is just as problematic, if not worse for the environment. Extracting the metal found in smartphones is a complex process that generates both solid and liquid waste. Once the valuable metals are retrieved, what’s left of the phone is typically discarded as trash. Yet, even while much of the metal has been extracted, the remaining waste can still have harmful substances, including lead, cadmium, and arsenic. These toxic elements can make their way into water systems, soil, and even into the atmosphere as dust.
Signs of this pollution are already apparent across the globe. Waterways in China’s Inner Mongolia are loaded with electronic waste. Other e-waste dumping zones, including Ghana and Nigeria, are exposed to a broad range of toxic chemicals that pose serious health and environmental risks.
Unfortunately, the pollution only seems to be getting worse. Of the 41 million tonnes of e-waste generated each year, less than 16% is recycled. One way to change that figure lies in smartphone recycling.
Refurbishment & Recycling Smartphones for a More Sustainable Future
The first step in minimizing the carbon footprint of smartphones lies in ensuring the phones that already exist are being recycled. To achieve this, smartphone recycling needs to be convenient for consumers — otherwise, the devices will continue to wind up in landfills. This could mean having simple programs in place for dropping off or mailing phones that are no longer in use, among other solutions led by businesses, municipalities, and retailers and supported by local recycling facilities.
This is also where another major solution – refurbishment – comes in. Wherever possible, reuse is the most sustainable solution to end-of-life smartphone management. Fortunately, there is a growing market for more affordable refurbished and used phones, especially in China, India, and Indonesia.
While there will inevitably be circumstances in which smartphones are too old or damaged to be reused, recovering all salvageable materials is still preferable to having the entire device wind up in a landfill. With this in mind, there’s an obligation on the part of smartphone manufacturers to use more recyclable materials, adopt sustainable manufacturing processes, and improve both the durability and software support of smartphones so fewer new phones need to be produced and the ones that are manufactured remain in use for as long as possible.
With the unique ability to offer both refurbishment and recycling, Quantum supports greater sustainability for smartphones for a wide variety of users. Find out more about our solutions for mobile devices.