When we think about a phone's environmental impact, we tend to think about the electricity used to charge it. But that's the small part. Most of a smartphone's footprint is created before you take it out of the box.
Where a phone's footprint comes from
A smartphone's life cycle has four stages: manufacturing (including raw-material extraction), transport, use and end of life. The product environmental reports published by manufacturers agree on one thing: manufacturing accounts for most of the emissions of the whole cycle, far more than the energy the phone uses over years of charging.
Why? Because a phone packs into a tiny space:
- Chips and memory made with very energy-intensive processes.
- Metals such as cobalt, lithium, copper, gold and rare earths, whose mining has a high environmental and, in some cases, social impact.
- Chemically treated screens and glass.
The e-waste problem
According to the Global E-waste Monitor 2024 (UNITAR and the International Telecommunication Union), around 62 million tonnes of e-waste were generated worldwide in 2022, and only about 22% was formally collected and recycled. The rest ends up in drawers, landfill or informal recycling.
Recycling doesn't recover everything either: many critical materials are recovered at low rates. That's why, in the waste hierarchy, reuse comes before recycling.
How much a refurbished phone helps
A refurbished phone has already been made. The refurbishing process (transport, diagnosis, the odd new part and testing) has a much smaller footprint than making a device from scratch. Several life-cycle studies, such as those by the French agency ADEME, show the difference is very significant.
What you can do
- Make your current phone last longer: a case, a screen protector, battery care and a timely repair.
- When you need another one, consider refurbished. If you're unsure, start with is a refurbished iPhone worth it?.
- Don't keep old phones in a drawer: sell them, donate them or take them to a recycling centre or shop take-back scheme so they can be reused or recycled.
- Ask for repairability: look at how easy a phone is to repair and how many years of updates the manufacturer promises.
In short
The most effective way to reduce the impact of your tech isn't unplugging the charger: it's using each device for longer and, when it's time to switch, choosing one that already exists. That's where refurbished makes the difference.
Sources
- Global E-waste Monitor 2024, UNITAR / ITU.
- Manufacturers' product environmental reports (for example, Apple's Product Environmental Reports).
- Life-cycle studies of electronic equipment by ADEME (the French Agency for Ecological Transition).