5 Ways to Make Your Smartphone More Sustainable

Considering most of us now use our mobiles like a third arm, with the average time spent on our phones being 4 hours per day in the UK, we thought we'd take a deeper look at how we can reduce the carbon footprint of our mobile phones. Our wonderful friends over at Honest Mobile shared some incredible stats about the impact of our mobile phones on the planet that really got us thinking:

What is the carbon footprint of a smartphone?

The technology industry is responsible for around 3.7% of greenhouse gases – that’s around the same amount as global aviation. By 2040, communication technology will account for 14% of the global environmental footprint (Journal of Cleaner Production, 2018).

The carbon footprint of manufacturing the average mobile phone is 70 Kg of CO2 (the equivalent of a 3 hour flight).  An average user with Honest Mobile generates approximately 16.7kg of CO2 / year through usage (calls, messages and data) and charging. This equates to approximately 25% of your smartphones carbon footprint. So, the average Brit has a phone for about 71 years which equates to 4,970kg of CO2. That’s equivalent to flying from London to New York 7.5 times. This doesn’t sound too bad, but remember, there are over 5 billion mobile users worldwide. 

How many mobile phones are thrown away each year?

So we know roughly 5 billion phones are in circulation globally, but sadly we're not reusing and recycling as much as we should. According to studies:

• 150 million mobile phones are discarded every year, which is roughly 426,000 every day across the world.
• 4.7 million people in the UK admitted to throwing their phone in the trash, rather than recycling or trading in.
• Nearly 60% of households in the UK have between one and three devices lying around unused.
• Two thirds of people reported never using their old handset.
• Phones contain many harmful chemical substances (lead, lithium, arsenic, copper, cadmium, mercury, and zinc) that will contaminate air, water and soil after breaking down which is highly detrimental to both organisms living in those habitats and the human populations that are in close proximity to these sites.

When electronic devices are responsibly recycled or sold on, it prevents them from getting left to become e-waste on landfill sites around the world, which is not only a benefit for the environment, it also benefits your wallet. There's a lot to be said for buying refurbished phones too, as it prevents phones from going to landfill and and you'll save up to 40% compared to buying new! Though if you want as close to new as possible Mobiles.co.uk offer refurbished phones that are like-new and unused all from customer returns.

How many phone cases are thrown away each year?

Then there's the accessories, which have to change as often as the phone does. 1.5 billion phone cases are thrown away each year. That's a lot of plastic waste.  So it's great that brands like Wave are paving the way in providing affordable and sustainable phone cases that can be fully composted at the end of their life, simply send it back to them and you'll get 20% off your next case. If we all opted for more sustainable accessories it would make a huge difference.

So with all this in mind it's important to start thinking more responsibly when it comes to the 'fast fashion' relationship we have with our tech, here are 5 ways you can dramatically reduce your phones impact: