As the sales of smartphones has skyrocketed their contribution to the e-waste stream has also increased exponentially
With annual sales in the region of 1 billion per annum about four out of ten people on the planet own a smart phone, many people own more than one smartphone, and most people still have their “old phone/s” languishing in a drawer somewhere
Smartphones produce about 80% of their emissions in the production phase so reducing the number produced is a good place to start and keeping each phone in use for longer is a good way to achieve this.
Proper recycling when they have reached their real end of life is the best way of recovering the raw materials for reuse from smartphones, reducing the carbon footprint of new phones manufactured from these recovered materials.
See “Repairing – not recycling – is the first step to tackling e-waste from smartphones. Here’s why” from the World Economic Forum
You can recycle those old smartphones here at Electronic Recycling
