A Sustainable Relationship with Cellphones
Cellphones bring us closer to one another, often in ways we never realize. As the fastest-spreading technology in human history, cell phones have seemingly become universally indispensable in an instant. Behind their screens, cell phones hold deep stories about how people are connected to each other and to the natural world.
Our technology is linked to the natural world. We can’t separate the two. Everything in your cell phone comes from the Earth. While the human body is primarily composed of just six elements, standard cell phones include 65 elements, including quartz, silicon, gold, copper, and silver. These elements come from many places around the world, connecting cellphone users to a global web of places, people, and their labor. These connections are invisible to the average cellphone user.
What does a more sustainable cellphone look like?
Designed to be Discarded
Casings are glued shut. Batteries slow down and cannot be replaced. Software is always being upgraded without back compatibility. Slick commercials promote the hottest, latest models.
These are just some of the ways that cellphone manufacturers—heck, almost all companies that make and sell things—design and market their products to encourage you to buy a new one instead of repairing the one you have.
Americans purchase over 160 million new smartphones each year and keep them for an average of 2.9 years.
If all Americans used their cellphones for one year longer, on average, it would equal the emissions reduction of taking 636,000 gasoline-powered cars off the road. It would also reduce the demand for raw materials by 42.5 million pounds (19.2 million kg) a day!
The most sustainable cellphone is the one you already own.
If you really want to lower your phone’s environmental impact, the best thing you can do is find a way to extend its life for at least another year—the longer, the better.
Companies can help by developing cellphones that are more sustainable, repairable, and environmentally friendly.
What does your cellphone mean to you?
It’s almost impossible to capture in a single word the dramatic influence cellphones have had on human life. But many of us haven’t considered the ways our cellphones connect us to the natural world, and to an unseen global network of people, labor, and infrastructure.
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Washington, D.C. 20560
