As hundreds of thousands of UK employees continue to work from home, we have over the past year become more mindful of how our behaviours directly impact our environment. During the first wave of the Covid19 lockdown in 2020, the impact on CO2 emissions was notable, as millions of people suddenly stopped moving.
In the first half of 2020, a global decrease of 8.8% in Global CO2 emissions (-1551 Mt CO2) compared to the same period in 2019, represented a larger decrease than during any previous economic downturns & or WW2. (1)
We are all aware that we all need to be doing more for our environment & that Climate Change is an ever present & progressive threat to the human race. Slowly but surely the tide is turning & more & more people are making changes to their lifestyles & working practices to ensure they are reducing their carbon footprint.
How can you take a more sustainable approach towards your IT equipment or your Mobile Phone technologies?
Where did you purchase your IT equipment? When you purchased it, was where or how it was manufactured a consideration? Did you research the carbon footprint of your equipment? If it breaks, would you repair it, or would you simply consider replacing it?
With 80% of global e-waste either ending up in landfill or being informally recycled in developing countries every year, the following statistics are staggering:
- Only 20% of the global e-waste is formally recycled
- the e-waste produced annually is worth over $62.5 billion, more than the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of most countries
- there is 100 times more gold in a tonne of e-waste than in a tonne of gold ore (2)
However, there are better ways to purchase, repair or dispose of your IT equipment.
First, when you are considering purchasing new IT equipment ask yourself, is it really beyond repair?
Have you had the IT equipment checked by a professional & do the costs of repair really outweigh purchasing a new unit? Repairing something, anything, is an ethos adopted by our pre & post War generations. For the ‘Make do & Mend generation’ with so very little available to them, repairing & what we now know as ‘upcycling’ was simply a part of life. Our fast paced & ‘throw away’ modern mentality has impacted hugely on our need to recycle, upcycle or repair.
Secondly, does it have to be new?
Reconditioned IT equipment is available to purchase in many online stores. Laptop’s or PC’s for example have new software & hardware upgrades & although the casing may be a year or two old; the operating systems are the very latest upgrades.
The additional benefit above & beyond the fact that this IT equipment is ‘upcycled’ is the cost. An ‘upcycled’ PC/Laptop can cost a fraction of the price of a new one. Something to consider if you feel your IT equipment needs upgrading.
Thirdly, where does your IT equipment go when it has finally gone beyond repair or upgrading?
There are literally hundreds of recycling units across the UK from your local Council Household Recycling Centre’s to online recycling centres, which some may have a monetary incentive for you to recycle through them. Consider how you wish your IT equipment to be recycled & or upcycled & be part of the uptick in millions of tonnes of IT equipment not making it’s way into landfill.
Mobile phones have become an integral part of how we live & work.
An estimated 61.62% of the human population owns a mobile phone & there are reportedly some 4.78 billion mobile phones in circulation (3)
For the majority of us a mobile phone has become another extension of our lives, something we carry with us everywhere & for many people an absolute lifeline.
But why do we have an inherent need to have the latest & most up to date model of mobile phone technology?
There is a reason why the leading brands are perpetually developing new models & it is because the mobile phone industry leaders have created an in-built longevity into their technologies using a tactic known as ‘built in obsolescence’
Built in obsolescence enables a company to give electronic items a shelf life, or rather an expectation of a ‘shelf life’ With every upgrade, new product or new tech; the previous technology becomes obsolete. In some case’s items such as computer software are often outdated before they even hit production, as a new upgrade has already been written to replace it.
Apple Inc, the iPhone giant, extols the virtues of their extensive recycling programme with their MacBook Air & Mac mini enclosures all being made from 100% recycled aluminium & the solder in the main logic board of the iPhone being made with 100% recycled tin. More than 40 components in the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max & iPhone XR contain recycled plastic & 100% of the wood fibre in Apple’s packaging comes from recycled sources or responsibly managed forests. (4)
Despite this very extensive recycling programme, Apple are still producing & tempting consumers with new iPhone technologies every year.
So how can you find a mobile phone technology that does not have ‘built in obsolescence’?
Fairphone are an ecologically mindful company, whose entire ethos focuses on the ideal of a ‘fairer electronics industry’ with every ethical facet of the manufacture of their Fairphone mobile phone being accountable.
Fairphone believe in the notion that sustainability, ethical sourcing & longevity are at the core of the future of electronics & cite the following as their mandate for creating a truly ecologically sound product:
Fairphone believe that responsible materials sourcing, sustainability & workers welfare are imperative for the future of the electronics industry. They are succinct & to the point when it comes to their company ethos “Fairphone puts people and the planet first.” (5) & they design for longevity, easy repair, & modular upgrades. The longer an end user can keep their phone, the smaller its environmental footprint. (5)
Food for thought when considering how your hand-held technology impacts on the environment around you.
But what about your old device? With some 40 million obsolete devices languishing in drawers across the UK, how can you ensure your technology is disposed of or recycled without harming the environment?
Most of the major brand leaders & mobile phone providers offer a free recycling option & many take your old mobile phone in part exchange for a new model & or contract. Another option it to sell your old technology on to a second user, so it can be re-used & in doing so, extending the life of the mobile phone. If neither of these options are available to you, again your local Council Recycling centre will ensure your mobile technology is recycled & disposed of safely & without causing harm to the environment.
Written by Katy-Jane Mason for & on behalf of Virtually Smart.
- https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-18922-7 Liu, Z., Ciais, P., Deng, Z. et al. Near-real-time monitoring of global CO2 emissions reveals the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nat Commun 11, 5172 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-18922-7
- https://www.unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/press-release/un-report-time-seize-opportunity-tackle-challenge-e-waste
- https://www.bankmycell.com/blog/how-many-phones-are-in-the-world
- https://www.apple.com/uk/environment/
- https://www.fairphone.com/en/story/
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