Environmental Impact of Mobile Phones

Discussion

John Thackara:

"Mobile phones may be small to hold in your hand - but that does not make them light. The phone in your pocket contains a tiny quantity of gold, for example, whose extraction required 200 pounds of earth to be moved. A Forum for the Future report called Earth Calling further lists all the processes most responsible for the environmental impacts of the sector: extracting the raw materials that are used in phones and network equipment; manufacturing phone components; running the networks; managing phones and network equipment at end-of-life; using, and particularly charging, phones; rolling out network infrastructure; transporting people and physical parts to maintain the system; constructing and managing offices, retail stores and call centres. And that's not counting the impactful behaviours that mobile phones enable or cause, such as spontaneous trips, or sudden purchases."

Source: https://www.forumforthefuture.org/sites/default/files/project/downloads/earthcalling.pdf