TOPICS

E-waste refers to a category of waste derived from electronic devices that have become obsolete, damaged, or no longer used. These can include a wide range of electronic equipment such as computers, mobile phones, televisions, household appliances, audio and video equipment.

Regarding mobile phones, their environmental impact is significant since the average lifespan of a device is about 3 years, after which software or hardware issues lead us to repair it (which would be ideal!) or replace it with a new, more performant one. Just 20 years ago, we couldn't have imagined the existence of smartphones, and now we can't live without them.

The number of connections now exceeds the number of people on Earth, without considering that 9% of the world's population has no access to electricity. (source: Ansa.it)

Only 20% of smartphones are recycled; the rest is often disposed of improperly, causing pollution, health hazards, and habitat loss.

In Ghana, there is the world's largest e-waste dump.
Source: bankmycell

Remember that even the cell phone you've kept in your drawer is considered electronic waste!

Recycling is important not only to protect the environment and animals, but also because it allows us to recover precious materials inside our devices.
There are in fact more than 50 chemical elements, each with a specific role inside a smartphone. As the performance of a device improves, the chemical elements needed to achieve it also increase...

Are smartphones really "smart"? It doesn't seem so to us!

Rare earth elements (REE, from the English Rare-Earth Elements): these are 17 chemical elements (Scandium, Yttrium, and the 15 lanthanides) essential for producing electronic components. They are called "rare" because they are found mixed with other materials, requiring costly, lengthy, and polluting processes to separate them.

Coltan: a mixture of Columbite and Tantalite. About 80% of the world's reserves are in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where extraction—often artisanal and in inhumane conditions—fuels armed conflicts and child labor.

Conflict minerals: the term 3TG refers to the four minerals Tin , Tungsten , Tantalum and Gold. The term arises because the extraction and trade of these materials in politically unstable areas fuel armed conflicts and corruption. Mines, particularly in the Democratic Republic of Congo and neighboring countries, are often controlled by militias that exploit the local population.

• Digital pollution refers to the environmental impact caused by the use of electronic devices, such as computers, smartphones, tablets, and all online services. It is an "invisible" pollution because we rarely think that the production and use of all technological devices generate CO2 emissions. Most of the carbon footprint comes from material extraction and assembly, but data streaming and storage in data centers also heavily influence energy consumption.

• The environmental impact of mobile phones is high, with about 80 kg of CO2 generated for each new device, concentrated for over 80% in production and transportation. Extracting precious materials (gold, cobalt, rare earths) requires enormous water and energy resources, while rapid turnover generates millions of tons of electronic waste, often not recycled.

• The extraction of precious materials found in our smartphones, such as the 3TG minerals, destroys monkey habitats in the Democratic Republic of Congo, putting their survival at risk. Deforestation, in fact, is one of the main causes of biodiversity loss.
  Recycling used mobile phones reduces the demand for these materials and helps protect animals' natural environments.

• In the world's largest electronic waste dump in Ghana, waste is mainly burned to extract precious metals like copper, gold, silver, and aluminum for resale, to make a few pennies. The open-air combustion of plastics, cables, and electronic components releases harmful substances into the air that settle on the ground, contaminating groundwater and causing serious respiratory and neurological diseases.

Recycling is important not only to protect the environment and animals, but also because it allows us to recover precious materials inside our devices.
There are in fact more than 50 chemical elements, each with a specific role inside a smartphone. As the performance of a device improves, the chemical elements needed to achieve it also increase...

Are smartphones really "smart"? It doesn't seem so to us!

Rare earth elements (REE, from the English Rare-Earth Elements): these are 17 chemical elements (Scandium, Yttrium, and the 15 lanthanides) essential for producing electronic components. They are called "rare" because they are found mixed with other materials, requiring costly, lengthy, and polluting processes to separate them.

Coltan: a mixture of Columbite and Tantalite. About 80% of the world's reserves are in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where extraction—often artisanal and in inhumane conditions—fuels armed conflicts and child labor.

Conflict minerals: the term 3TG refers to the four minerals Tin , Tungsten , Tantalum and Gold. The term arises because the extraction and trade of these materials in politically unstable areas fuel armed conflicts and corruption. Mines, particularly in the Democratic Republic of Congo and neighboring countries, are often controlled by militias that exploit the local population.

What coltan is: Coltan is short for columbite–tantalite, from which tantalum is extracted. Tantalum is a metal essential for manufacturing high‑performance, miniaturized capacitors in electronics, crucial for technologies such as smartphones, computers, and electric cars.

The coltan war is a dramatic and ongoing conflict that has been active for more than 20 years in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), causing millions of victims. The DRC holds about 80% of the world’s reserves of this mineral.

Coltan is often extracted under conditions of slavery and then smuggled through neighboring countries (Rwanda, Uganda), financing warlords and rebels. Children and adults work in the mines for up to 14 hours a day, often for less than 1–2 dollars, in extremely dangerous conditions.
It is estimated that the conflict, fueled by control over the mines, has caused at least 8–10 million deaths.

Source: Nova Lectio