The iPhone may be one of the most popular smart phones on the market, but that does not exempt it from its environmental responsibilities.
Here is an infographic that illustrates how discarded iPhones can inflict grave consequences on the environment and provides suggestions on how to embrace the ‘Green Apple’ approach, not only with iPhones but across all similar types of devices.
KEEPING A GREEN APPLE
Recycling iPhone E-Wastes the Practical Way
It may be the largest and most popular smartphones on the market to date but that doesn’t exempt the iPhone from its environmental responsibilities. Greenpeace has rattled Apple about their less than stellar attempts at making the iPhone a greener device since 2007. Five years after this, did Apple manage to make itself greener, or is the iPhone still e-waste-worthy?
WHAT E-WASTES DO PEOPLE THROW AWAY?
E-WASTE is an informal name that refers to all wastes from electronic equipment of all sizes and types that contains dangerous chemicals like lead, cadmium, mercury, bromine and beryllium.
- Television – 20 Million/year
- Computers – 40.1 Million/year
- Phones – 100 Million/year
The UN Environment Program says that the total weight of e-wastes all over the world could be 50,000,000 tons/year.
WHAT HAZARDOUS CHEMICALS DO THESE PHONES BRING TO OUR ENVIRONMENT AND BODY?
Lead
Found in: Solderings
Effect: Damage to the nervous system, damage to the kidney, retardation and seizures
Beryllium
Found in: Battery contacts and electrical connectors
Effect: Poisoning, lung cancer
Arsenic
Found in: Semiconductors and ICs
Effect: Poisoning, heart disease, cancer and stroke
Mercury
Found in: Cellphone’s monitors
Effect: Poisoning, memory loss and sensory problems
THE IPHONE THROUGH THE YEARS
Because of the environmental risks the iPhone original had posted, Apple put up sustainability reports for their products to show people just how much they’ve been working on reducing their carbon emissions and making their products greener.
iPhone 3G 55 kg of CO20 = 45% Production + 49% Customer Use + 5% Transportation + 1% Recycling
iPhone 3GS 55 kg of CO2 = 45% Production + 49% Customer Use + 5% Transportation + 1% Recycling
iPhone 4 55 kg of CO2 = 65% Production + 26% Customer Use + 7% Transportation + 2% Recycling
iPhone 4S 70 kg of CO2 = 69% Production + 23% Customer Use + 6% Transportation + 2% Recycling
The iPhone was also re-designed to be free from harmful chemicals like arsenic, mercury, bromine fire retardants and PVC.
These transformations led to a rise and stabilized rankings for Apple in the GREENPEACE GUIDE TO GREENER ELECTRONICS
- 2.7/10 – April 2007
- 4.3/10 – November 2008
- 4.7/10 – March 2009
- 5.1/10 – January 2010
- 4.6/10 – November 2011
HERE ARE A FEW STEPS YOU CAN DO TO BE A GREEN APPLE USER
1. NEVER EVER THROW AWAY YOUR IPHONE!
Throwing your iPhone away like an old rag isn’t the smartest way to deal with a useless piece of technology. Did you know that the 65 tons of toxic wastes from mobile phones
in the landfills would amount to 3 oil tankers!
2. CHARGE LESS FREQUENTLY
Make sure that you get to maximize and exhaust your iPhone’s battery so that you can conserve energy when charging your iPhone. Did you know that you can power a
light bulb for 357 years if you use the energy from all the iPhone sold in 2010?
And we’re not even talking about the iPhone 4S sales!
3. IF YOUR OLD IPHONE’S SCREEN IS BROKEN, DON’T THROW IT AWAY
Of all the iPhone parts, the LCD screen is probably to costliest to repair and the hardest to deal with. But you should never throw away those screen parts nor the
iPhone per se. Did you know that in Lianjian, Taiwan, 49 people were poisoned while assembling those touchscreens? That’s how bad it is for human beings!
4. GET AN IPHONE UPGRADE
The biggest portion of the iPhone’s Greenhouse gas emissions comes from customer use, especially if you own an iPhone original, 3G and 3GS. These iPhones have 22% more emissions than the newer models so it would be best to upgrade to a newer iPhone after a year or two!
5. SELL AND RECYCLE YOUR IPHONE!
Of all the discarded iPhones in the world, did you know that only 10% of these are recycled well? You don’t have to sweat the recycling process. If you don’t want your iPhone anymore, simply sell your iPhone to refurbishment companies like Cash for iPhones so that you can recycle and reuse your iPhone while earning!