Environmental footprints show the savings potential of high reparability through modular smartphone design

Abstract

Two thirds of all people own a mobile phone or smartphone, which are typically not very durable and often are replaced. As a result, mobile phones already outnumber people on earth and represent the fastest growing waste stream. This entails a whole range of problems. On the environmental impact side, issues range from high input of metal ores to large amounts of electronic waste. Here, we quantify the environmental benefit of reparability on the example of a modular and easily repairable smartphone facilitating a longer lifetime. Within the scope of a life cycle assessment, we analyse the climate, energy, land, material and water footprint, focusing on the potential savings that arise from modularity and the longer lifetime. A modular use case, in which a smartphone is used for 5 years through replacement of defective modules, is compared to a reference use case with 2.5 years standard use and no replacements by means of the application-related functional unit "smartphone use for one year". The reference use case is responsible for 9 kg climate-damaging emissions, consumes 33 kWh of energy, 0.4 m2 of land, 16 kg of raw material and 32 kg of primary material as well as 3 m3 of water and would require 8,000 m3 of dilution water to eliminate water pollution by dilution. The modular use case can save an average of 40% of emissions and natural resources per functional unit. In the area of gold production alone, 3 kg of raw materials or 9 kg of primary materials can be saved. Scaled to 2 billion smartphones sold worldwide yearly, raw material savings are in the order of 13,000 multi-family houses, while CO2 emissions can be saved in the order of 12 million medium-haul flights per year. Spatial hotspots of environmental impacts can be reduced and mitigated if easy reparability is ensured through a modular design and if customers use their smartphones longer.