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Why I agree smartphones should be recyclable, I'm not sure it's important in the larger scheme of things. A phone is a very small item, relatively speaking and

Why I agree smartphones should be recyclable, I'm not sure it's important in the larger scheme of things. A phone is a very small item, relatively speaking and even at its height, the upgrade cycle was only once every 12 months. Now consider the sheer volume of trash — paper, plastic, foil, fumes, food, etc. — many individuals and organisations throw out every day. It essentially defies comprehension, but it's a lot. So much that's we've created an incredible reverse supply-chain to get it all out of sight and out of mind as quickly as possible, with the result that we rarely stop to think just how much crap we're all generating. Set against this, people throwing out a tiny electronic item, even an item containing some nasty toxic stuff inside it, is a very small problem. Smartphones are novel and make for a high-profile target, but the real problem is the more mundane avalanche of detritus that accompanies modern civilisation.

ryanmercer 7y ago
>Set against this, people throwing out a tiny electronic item, even an item containing some nasty toxic stuff inside it, is a very small problem. It's a very large problem. In the 2017 fiscal year, Apple sold 216.76 million iPhones. Now factor in all the other manufacturers, and all the other years. Remember each one usually comes with a charging plug, a cable, some sort of earbuds, excessive showy packaging... >At present, approx. 4–5% of world production of gold, silver and copper, as well as even up to 20% of world production of palladium and cobalt, are currently used for their production https://www.degruyter.com/downloadpdf/j/gospo.2016.32.issue-4/gospo-2016-0037/gospo-2016-0037.pdf https://www.degruyter.com/downloadpdf/j/gospo.2016.32.issue-... That is in regards to smartphones in 2013, it's almost certainly higher now. In a random smarphone you are likely to find most, if not all, of the following: opper, nickel, silver, gold, platinum group metals, cobalt, lithium, lead, tin, zinc, rare earth metals, gallium, indium, iron, chromium, niobium, tantalum, titanium. I've been thinking about electroinc waste a lot lately and I'm starting to think it is the reason why the universe is so quiet. Species don't destroy themselves in wars, I think they have development cycles similar to us where in a century or two they burn through a massive amount of their resources. They burn fossil fuels and negatively change their environment, they create plastics and negatively change their environments, they largely deplete the elements they require to make advanced technologies and end up with landfills full of personal electronic deices before they reach a point where they are mining asteroids and starting interstellar travel to continue to have adequate resources for general construction and manufacturing of technology.

ryanmercer 7y ago

>Set against this, people throwing out a tiny electronic item, even an item containing some nasty toxic stuff inside it, is a very small problem. It's a very large problem. In the 2017 fiscal year, Apple sold 216.76 million iPhones. Now factor in all the other manufacturers, and all the other years. Remember each one usually comes with a charging plug, a cable, some sort of earbuds, excessive showy packaging... >At present, approx. 4–5% of world production of gold, silver and copper, as well as even up to 20% of world production of palladium and cobalt, are currently used for their production https://www.degruyter.com/downloadpdf/j/gospo.2016.32.issue-4/gospo-2016-0037/gospo-2016-0037.pdf https://www.degruyter.com/downloadpdf/j/gospo.2016.32.issue-... That is in regards to smartphones in 2013, it's almost certainly higher now. In a random smarphone you are likely to find most, if not all, of the following: opper, nickel, silver, gold, platinum group metals, cobalt, lithium, lead, tin, zinc, rare earth metals, gallium, indium, iron, chromium, niobium, tantalum, titanium. I've been thinking about electroinc waste a lot lately and I'm starting to think it is the reason why the universe is so quiet. Species don't destroy themselves in wars, I think they have development cycles similar to us where in a century or two they burn through a massive amount of their resources. They burn fossil fuels and negatively change their environment, they create plastics and negatively change their environments, they largely deplete the elements they require to make advanced technologies and end up with landfills full of personal electronic deices before they reach a point where they are mining asteroids and starting interstellar travel to continue to have adequate resources for general construction and manufacturing of technology.