Do you change your phone often? You are harming the environment

A European study on the impact of mobile phones and other devices on the climate shows that increasing their lifespan by five years is the same as removing all cars in Portugal for one year.

Just three years is the average life cycle of a smartphone in the European Union. Each year, more than 632 million existing devices release 14 tonnes of CO2 (carbon dioxide) into the atmosphere, equivalent to a quarter of Portugal's average emissions in recent years.

If the lifetime of smartphones were increased only for another year would no longer be released two tons of CO2 every 12 months - the same as removing two million cars off the road.

These data are part of the report published by the European Environmental Bureau (EEB), of which the Portuguese environmental association Zero is part.

EEB analysts studied the climate effects of four devices, smartphones, laptops, washing machines and vacuum cleaners, taking into account the high amount of energy and resources used in the various phases of production and distribution.
The conclusion is impressive: extending the life of these four devices by five years would be the same as taking all cars that circulate in Portugal - about five million - off the road for a year. That is, not emit 10 million tons of carbon.

Source: Visão