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Do mobile phones cost the Earth?
Nearly a billion mobile phones are sold each year. Obsolesence is built in, with many service options in the UK offering an upgrade every year. Reliability is still very patchy too. It is ironic that even as the operators are pushing the latest services such as TV on your phone, or gambling, or Internet access or a better camera, the majority of users just want to talk or send a text.
What happens to the old phones? Many are still in drawers or cupboards, but millions escape any notion of recycling (ie re-use in other parts of the world: faulty ones can’t realistically be repaired) and enter landfill or incineration. And they are not made from 100 per cent friendly materials!
Ever considered the carbon footprint of a little mobile phone – times several billion? Every new one comes with a new charger too, and many of those chargers are left on all the time.
Mobiles and all the other little digital gadgets are causing a big problem. Manufacturers are increasingly aware of course, but for many parts of our modern gadgets, toxic waste is inevitable, and the sheer volume of manufacture inescapable. Even recycling takes energy.
- It’s more than a WEE problem. Explore the impact of this Directive and your impact on the environment.
- Perspectives on energy and CO2 in the home
- The stand-by issue (look at those computers and modems too)
There is of discussion avaiable about phone chargers, and it’s the billions, not the one, that matter. But ‘standby Britain’ is in only a small part due to phone chargers (there are lots of other similar chargers for other appliances like rechargeable mini-vacs, that are probably always on, cameras etc.
- How much does your mobile really cost?
- Unplug your chargers ...
- Vodafone advice (on phones, not masts!)
- ... and on all their activities
- O2 goes into detail: phone 10.4kg CO2 pa, base station 10.5T pa
- and O2 reports under ‘Environmental’ half way down this page
And there are other costs, more human, to our passion for electronic gadgets:
- who makes your gadget, under what conditions? The price is one you can afford ...
- Guns, money and cell phones. From 2001: how much has changed?
- Congo’s coltan rush
- Cellphones fuel Congo conflict (2002)
- Centre for Computing and Social Responsibility also takes a view
