Mobile Phone Lifecycle

Mobile communications, both wireless devices and the supporting radio networks, have environmental impacts throughout their lifecycle in terms of resources and energy used. Wireless services also provide potential benefits through substitution effects (for example, a call rather than a journey), environmental monitoring and indirectly through enabling business productivity.

Research indicates that it is the component manufacture and use phases of the phone’s lifecycle which have the greatest environmental impact. The ideal, from an environmental perspective, is to design a mobile phone with reuse, recycling and minimal disposal in mind. This starts with reducing energy input to manufacture of components, substituting less hazardous substances (for example, the use of lead-free solder), and minimising mixing of materials, such as metals embedded in plastics, which could be difficult to separate during recycling.

Download the animation (.mov – 35Mb).

This section aims to put into context some of the debates surrounding environmentally responsible approaches to used and end-of-life mobile phones. Wherever possible, examples of practical action and good practice are highlighted with references for those readers who require more information.

Action on many fronts by the mobile telecommunications industry predates legislative requirements, and the industry has a lot of good practice to share.

Special thanks to France Telecom-Orange, Nokia, Telefónica O2 and Vodafone for sponsorship and contributions.

Except where indicated figures used in this section are from the GSMA Mobile Phone Lifecycles report (2006).

To provide comment on the content send an email to: environment@gsm.org