[A Message from the C3 Team]
Cell phones are expensive, ranging in price from a few hundred dollars to well over a thousand dollars. The actual cost is much greater due to the impact production, use, and disposal of cell phones has on the environment.
- Manufacturing cell phones require over 60 different elements, including copper, gold, silver palladium, lithium, cobalt, and rare earth elements. A new smartphone requires hundreds of pounds of fossil fuels, dozens of pounds of chemicals, including solvents, resins, flame retardants, and over one ton of water.
- The production of cell phones destroys habitats, produces toxic waste, contaminates rivers and lakes, and has links to child labor, unsafe working conditions, and violence in Africa.
- The typical phone weighs six to seven ounces but has a carbon footprint of 120-200 pounds. The electricity that powers the phone accounts for only 14% of the total carbon footprint.
With 8.3 billion cell phones in use worldwide and more than 2 billion phones discarded each year, the environmental consequences are devastating to our planet. Stacked flat, one on top of another, these cell phones would rise 30,000 miles high and reach one-eighth of the way to the moon.
Currently, the average lifetime of a smartphone is less than three years. Increasing the lifetime to four years would reduce waste by 30%. To increase the life of your cell phone, keep your cell phone charged to between 20 and 80 % since doing so improves battery life, and use a cell phone case and screen protector to minimize the chance of damage. In addition, get rid of apps that you don’t use, since they may continue running in the background, putting a strain on your cell phone.
Cell phones generally last five to eight years before software and lack of support render them obsolete. If your phone is younger than that, consider replacing your degraded battery or cracked screen before purchasing a replacement. These choices allow us to care for God’s good creation.