Let's Take A Look At Your Mobile Phone From A Sustainability Lens
You are probably reading this article on your mobile phone, and it is most likely you have used different social media platforms today to read a post, comment, like a photo, watch an interesting video, or probably purchase some great eBooks on amazon.
Mobile phones have become essential to our everyday lives.
The invention and continuous advancement in the mobile phone development is one of the great inventions of our time. It moved from being a storage device for contacts and receiving and making calls to a minicomputer with numerous functionalities.
As the world is advocating for a more sustainable world, many things have to change. This is why I am going to address the issue of the mobile phone from a sustainability lens
The mobile phone means so many things to many people. To an older woman in a rural village, it might be a way of connecting to her daughter studying far away on another continent. To others, it might be a way of connecting and making new friends or accessing the world from their bedroom, while to some, it is a means of identification of social status and class.
Whatever group you belong to, we must develop a new mindset to product consumption and use, a mindset that questions and seeks to know the source of our everyday products, the processes, and what happens after use.
If we develop this mindset, it might bring us to a better appreciation of the products around us, and just maybe, we will start changing our perception of the use of phones
I will describe your mobile phone as a soup bowl of precious and rare earth metals. An average smartphone contains up to 62 different metals, from common metals such as aluminum and copper to precious metals such as gold, silver, and platinum, and rare earth metals such as terbium, yttrium, neodymium, and many others. They also contain glass and plastics.
For those who don’t know, rare earth metals are a group of 15 elements found in the earth’s crust but are extremely difficult to mine and require complex separation and refining processes
Are you wondering why the component of your mobile phone should be an issue of concern? Here are some of the reasons you need to start having a rethink on how you use your mobile phones
First, over 60% of the world population owns a mobile phone, and that number is projected to increase as developing countries continue to advance. Another important part is that these billion users do a phone upgrade within 11 months after the average. These two facts above mean that more phones will be produced and discarded within a short period.
And the cycle continues…
Secondly, there is an inverse relationship between the level of awareness around recycling and the actual amount of material recycling that takes place. For mobile phones, barely 10% of the materials get recycled. There is a massive opportunity for material recovery in this area.
Thirdly, the bulk of emissions of smartphones comes from manufacturing and shipping. The use phase also has a significant impact on carbon emissions. According to a study on the carbon footprint of a smartphone., a one-minute mobile-to-mobile call produces 0.1g of CO2, sending a text message (SMS) produces 0.014g of CO2, and using 1GB of data uses 0.3kg of CO2. An average user with Honest Mobile generates approximately 16.7kg of CO2 /year through usage (calls, messages, and data) and charging.
The use phase of your mobile phone equates to about 25% of your phone’s carbon footprint.
Finally, one of the critical issues is the health implication of depositing electronic waste in landfill. Electronic wastes in landfills have been reported to cause terrible health problems for the residents of the communities around the landfill, and also the pollution of soil, rivers, and air with dangerous metals such as mercury, lead, chromium, arsenic, and many others.
“With mounting volumes of production and disposal, the world faces what one recent international forum described as a mounting “tsunami of e-waste,” putting lives and health at risk” Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.
The complex technology around smartphone development can make it seem as if the sustainable use of smartphones is the manufacturer’s sole responsibility. While these might be true, there are many things we can do as phone users to reduce the environmental and social impacts of smartphones.
You don’t have to feel overwhelmed, but you can do your part. If all the over 2 billion phone users can be more conscious about how they use their mobile phones, it will make a difference.
Here are the little things you can do to contribute to these
- Use your smartphone for as long as possible. This is fundamental, especially with the association of smartphones to social status and class, making people want to buy the latest model. There is nothing wrong with using a phone for a long time as long as it is still very functional. Using products for a more extended period help to reduce the frequency of used phones going to landfill.
- 1. Turn off automatic download. Download the things you need will help to reduce the energy consumption of your phone
- 1. Use green search engine: about 93% of internet traffic comes from search engines. Search engines make money from advertising revenues. There are tons of excellent green search engines that use their profit to help and reverse climate change, such as Ecosia, OceanHero, Rapusia, Elliot For Water, and many others.
- Purchase already used phones and support manufacturer’s take-back program. Smartphone companies such as apple have started rolling out iPhone reuse and recycle programs where consumers can purchase recycled or used phones. There are other mobile phone recycling companies, such as Faddyfone, where you sell your used phones to get quick cash regardless of the phone’s functionality.
