Refurbishment: the solution to the considerable environmental impact of smartphones?

This is not a scoop: the digital occupies a growing part of our daily lives. In this area, the French are at the head of the pack with fifteen devices connected per person compared to eight on average in the world. The problem is their environmental impact, and in particular of the terminals, especially the smartphones. According to a study conducted jointly by ADEME and Arcepthey would indeed be responsible for 60 to 90% of thedigital footprint in France, 90% for resource depletion. “ We seem to be moving from an addiction to fossil fuels resource dependence abiotic and that an unsustainable competition between renewable energy and digital society is emerging “, underlines the ADEME.

Impacts across the entire life cycle

The study is the result of a mission entrusted to ADEME and Arcep by the Ministry of Ecological Transition and the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Recovery to measure digital environmental footprint in France and to identify action levers and best practices to reduce it. The choice was made of a life cycle approach to measure the environmental footprint from the extraction of matter until the end of the product’s life. More than the simple, yet important energy consumptionare taken into account the depletion of abiotic resources (minerals and metals), the footprint carbon and ionizing radiation.

Manufacturing, the main source of impact

One of the major lessons of the study: the manufacturing phase is the main source of environmental impact, with use only accounting for 21%. The production of a smartphone requires more than 50 different materials and the extraction of more than 200 kilos of materials, in addition ” the large quantity of fossil fuels necessary for their production and the extraction of materials and metals, in countries where the mix is ​​generally high in carbon, such as China or the United States “. When we know that nearly 11 million smartphones were sold in France between January and September 2021 and that their duration average life is between 23 and 37 months, it is time to act.

The reconditioning solution

Among the courses of action recently published in a additional study by ADEMEis recommended to extend the life of smartphones “ across the durability of products, reuse, reconditioning, economy of functionality or repair “. The reduction in the annual environmental impact of a refurbished smartphone compared to a new one is around 55 to 91% depending on the replacement of parts and the location of the operation. In addition to offering the same services, a much lower price and with a growing number of resellers, reconditioning has everything to seduce. Moreover the market has risen 20% in 2020 with one in five French people who have already bought a refurbished smartphone.