What a Refurbished Phone Really Saves in Raw Materials

What a refurbished phone really saves in raw materials

A great deal is claimed about the environmental gain of second-hand, with big figures and little explanation. The core is simpler than the advertising and also harder: the greater part of the environmental burden of a smartphone sits in making it, not in using it. Anyone who understands that also knows why the only really big intervention is this: making a device last longer.

The bill sits in production

Before a device exists, ore has been mined, transported, ground and refined. Chips have been made in factories that use enormous amounts of energy and ultra-pure water. A display has been assembled, everything has been packaged and shipped around the world. Against that stands the use: a phone battery is small and you charge it with an amount of electricity that barely registers next to a fridge or a water heater.

The conclusion that follows from that is not that you should charge more frugally. It is that the number of devices that get made is the determining factor, and that you have influence on that by making the same one last longer.

What is in a device

A device weighing under two hundred grams contains dozens of elements. Aluminium or steel in the frame and glass on both sides. Copper in the boards, the coils and the cables. Tin in the solder joints, and gold, silver and palladium on the contacts and connectors, because those must not oxidise. Lithium, cobalt, nickel and graphite in the battery. Rare earth metals such as neodymium in the speakers, the vibration motor and the magnets. Tantalum in the capacitors, indium in the screen, and plastics from crude oil for the rest.

The point is not the quantity, because of most of those substances there are milligrams to a few grams in it. The point is the ratio. Those grams come from ore in which the concentration is very low, and so a lot of rock has to be moved, ground and treated with water and chemicals to get them out. That ratio between what goes in and what comes out is what makes a device expensive for the environment, not the weight you hold in your hand.

Where the chain is vulnerable

With a number of those substances the problem is not only ecological. Cobalt, tin and rare earth metals come from regions and mines where the conditions are hard to monitor. You do not have to make a moral story out of that to see the practical conclusion: every device that is used again does not set that part of the chain in motion once more.

What reuse actually changes

For a device that goes back into circulation, no frame, no board, no camera block and no screen has to be made. What is usually added is a battery and sometimes a display. That is the smallest and cheapest part of the materials bill. In other words, you replace the smallest part of the materials bill instead of the whole of it, and you avoid the making of one new device because someone is using this device instead.

On top of that comes a layer people forget: parts. A device that really cannot be saved still supplies working cameras, speakers, buttons and housing parts for other repairs. That too replaces new production.

Recycling is the second choice, not the first

In shredding and melting, some metals are recovered well, especially gold, copper and aluminium. Others come out badly or not at all, because they sit spread through alloys and in minute quantities. And everything that has gone into that device in the way of construction, assembly and calibration is completely lost in recycling: you are left with material, not a device.

The order, then, is: use it longer, repair, sell on, and only then recycle. Every step you skip costs more than the previous one.

The problem of the drawer

The greatest waste is not a broken device but a working device in a drawer. It does nothing there, it replaces a new purchase for nobody, the battery drains and ages in the meantime, and the value drops every quarter. A device you no longer use is at its most useful at the moment you stop using it, and not two years later.

Practically: sign out before you send it off, because devices with a SIM lock, an MDM lock or an active iCloud account we cannot buy, and put your data somewhere safe. The trade-in price is fixed for 14 days, so that you do not have to decide on the day you happen to find it again, and once approved, payment follows within two working days. The rest is set out at sell your device.

What happens to a device here

Every device goes through 32 checkpoints in our own workshop in Zarren. The battery has to have at least 85 per cent capacity, otherwise a new one goes in. Because the work is done at board level with micro-soldering, a device with a faulty chip is not immediately scrap: a repair at that level keeps a device in circulation that elsewhere would end up in the skip. The screen and the housing are renewed on every device, with 24 months of warranty and 30 days to change your mind on top of it. That has an ecological side too: a device that looks unblemished and works as expected stays in use and does not end up in a drawer after a month because the scratches were disappointing. How that check works is set out at quality.

What it is not

A refurbished device is not a clean device. It has been made with everything that involves, and that burden has already been paid. The gain lies in spreading it over more years of use. From that also follows the honest ranking: the cleanest device is the device you already have and keep for another two years. After that comes a device that someone else already had. And buying a second-hand device that you do not actually need is still one extra device in circulation.

Concretely, then, this is what remains: replace the battery instead of the device, choose second-hand when you are replacing anyway, get the old device out of the drawer while it still works, and do not buy more devices than you use.