Every year a new version of your smartphone comes onto the market. With an even better camera, even more storage, better software and faster internet. So yes, you want that! And phones are not made to last, so it will be very difficult to resist the urge to replace. Unfortunately, this purchasing behavior creates a mountain of electronic waste (e-waste) that keeps getting bigger and bigger.
Are you trying to live consciously, with love for the planet? Then make sure that you can use your phone for 5 to 7 years. The recent Fair phone study shows that this can reduce your phone's carbon footprint by 28 to 42 percent.
Every year millions of telephones end up on the scrap heap (or even worse: illegally on the big e-waste mountain in Africa). It's a shame, because your phone is made of precious materials such as gold, silver, nickel, copper and cobalt.
Throwing away your (properly functioning) telephone is therefore not exactly sustainable. Yet it is not surprising that we always want to have the latest phone.
How outdated?
Rapid technological changes in the electronics industry are leading consumers to believe they should have the latest gadgets, technology and smartphones.
New improved versions are up for grabs and we assume our previous phone is outdated. But in reality, the latest gadget often differs little from the previous one. These are very small improvements.
Smartphones are more alike than ever before and are made in such a way that after about 2 years the processor slows down and the battery runs out faster. In addition, they are complex, dense devices, so if something is broken, they are difficult to repair. The industry that releases new phones makes it nearly impossible for us to resist the very latest phone.
The urge for the latest of the new
The mindset of the industry and the greed of consumers means 1.4 billion mobile phones are sold every year. Often to replace a mobile phone that still works properly.
People use their phones on average for 2.7 years, after which they are discarded. Partly because of this, the e-waste mountain continues to rise, because less than 5 percent of the materials from discarded telephones can only be reused.
E-waste is the fastest growing waste stream in the world. In addition, overconsumption depletes natural resources (such as minerals and metals) and perpetuates social and environmental issues such as extremely dangerous working conditions in the production chain from mines to factories.
Everything with a plug or battery
Not only smartphones, but also all other defective and obsolete electronic devices that are thrown away create e-waste. Basically anything with a plug or a place for a battery.
What to do with e-waste?
There are several solutions for e-waste. Many municipalities have a waste point where you can separate all your waste, including electronic waste. For example: In Amsterdam you can go to the Zero Waste Lab and you can hand in up to 50 kilos of small chemical waste at various waste points every day.
You can also wait for an E-waste Race to be organized near you. This is a competition between schools in a region, to collect as much electronic waste as possible from people in the neighborhood.
Pupils and local residents then make an appointment to have the waste collected at home. The school scores points with this and after 4 weeks the winner is announced who wins a nice school trip.
