Among these materials we find, for example: Nickel which comes from Russia, Lithium extracted in Bolivia, Zinc which is found in China or even gold (yes you are richer than you think). However, for the extraction of a gram, it is necessary to use cyanide, mercury and about a thousand liters of water. That is the same amount of water that is needed to supply a population of 600,000 inhabitants in the countries where it is extracted (very often in South America).
Such a contaminating market exit
You've probably heard of planned obsolescence, but what you probably didn't know is that it's regulated by the law : “Art. L. 213-4-1.-I.- Planned obsolescence is defined by all the techniques by which a marketer aims to deliberately reduce the lifespan of a product in order to increase its replacement rate. " Article 1 also provides for defining a legal framework in order to sanction these practices and to offer recourse to aggrieved consumers.
Concretely, when your iPhone 6 does not support the iOS 14 version, it is a good example of planned obsolescence! But not only that. The materials used are not necessarily the most resistant on the market and the small parts to be repaired can be extremely difficult to find. Finally, elements such as chargers evolve over time and the latest one no longer allows us to charge our Nokia 3310. But it is not all the fault of the producers, there is also "aesthetic" obsolescence. According to Consoglobe, " Mobile phones are replaced after 20 months and this even drops to 10 months for 12-17 year olds " However, cell phones are not the only ones.
According to the Global E-waste Monitor Each French person produced around 21 kg of electrical and electronic equipment waste (WEEE or D3E) in 2019. In the best case scenario, we send our electronic devices to be repaired or we entrust them to associations that take care of reconditioning them. In the worst case scenario, these devices end up in a e-waste dump in Ghana !
Let's follow the best case instead.
Before you put it aside, try to get it repaired. There are Repair Cafés all over the country. Super nice people in places near you, ready to help you change the charging port on your phone that no longer works. If you want to find Repair Cafés in your area, type in “National Map of Zero Waste Solutions” on your search bar.
Yes, but if my phone is no longer repairable because I had fun throwing it at a party, should I throw it in the first trash can I come across? Well no, you have to take into account the fact that through a thermal process, it is possible to recover some of the materials (especially metal) from your electrical devices. This way, you avoid wasting a thousand liters of water to obtain a gram of gold for the electronic card of your mobile phone. So, if you too know this famous phrase from JCVD, it is important to bring your “old has-been phone” to the associations that collect or recycle them, such as jedonnemontelephone.fr. And if you don't know this legendary phrase:
And of course, the next time you need to change your phone you can consider buying a refurbished mobile, or, choose solid models, disassemblable with replaceable battery. You can always see their repairability index before making your choice.
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