Smartphone pollution: How sustainable is the mobile phone industry?


  • TECH
  • Monday, 27 Mar 2017

Toxic trash: Market researchers estimate that since the introduction of the first iPhone ten years ago, more than seven billion smartphones have been produced and many of them have since ended up in the dump.

The smartphone and tablet market is a multi-billion dollar business in which companies compete hard to win customers. That’s good for the consumer but what's often overlooked is the environmental cost.

"With their short-lived devices and unnecessarily fast product cycles, the manufacturers are causing massive environmental damage and catastrophic working conditions," Manfred Santen, an electronics expert with Greenpeace, said at the recent Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Subscribe now to our Premium Plan for an ad-free and unlimited reading experience!
   

Next In Tech News

KKR, CDP rival consortium readying new bids for Telecom Italia's grid
GameStop shares plummet after fifth CEO exit in 5 years
Analysis-US SEC Coinbase, Binance crackdown puts crypto exchanges on notice
Microsoft, Google strategy to test AI search ads irks some brands
Adobe pushes Firefly AI into big business, with financial cover
Meta introduces broadcast tool Channels on WhatsApp
Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Twitter target of EU crypto advertising complaint
EU's Breton demands Meta act against online content targeting children
US sets US$5mil reward for Swede who marketed encrypted phones to traffickers
WhatsApp debuts one-to-many broadcasting 'Channels'

Others Also Read