Environmental Footprint
I have compiled together information from four different websites as a base for this critique on the environmental footprint of an iPhone. I found this information to be very convincing, and this can be shown in my critique below:
We take our world for granted. We don’t stop to think, the technology around us, technology we/man has created is ruining the very world we live on. Our country is being taken over by electronic devices that have become part of our everyday human life. It is something we have developed such an attachment we cannot go a day without.
Take for example a media device such as an iPhone.
How is it that something that we have become so dependent on, is something that can effect both environment and our very own health?
Manufacturing the latest iPhone (iPhone six – said to be estimated to sell 80 million) the carbon footprint generated by manufacture will be greater than the total yearly carbon footprint of 770,000 people and their day to day lives in London boroughs of Westminster and surrounding areas. That is only in the MAKING of a product, the machinery it takes to create each piece that makes up an iPhone. We the consumers of the world have such a high demand for new technology, for both personal and professional gains. In having such a growing demand, we are allowing ourselves to emit huger carbon footprints on our environment each and every year.
Though the environmental footprint of an iPhone is damaging, we are taking precautions in what actually goes into a product being handled by millions of users around the world. In the iPhone 3, there are all different sorts of chemicals harmful to both our environment and ourselves such as: Lead, nickel, cadmium, chlorine, mercury. iPhone 6 on the other hand have less chemicals and elements than ever before. Recently Apple have stated the removal of Beryllium, Benzene and n-hexene (which are reported to be linked to nerve damage and leukemia) in their newest iPhones. This is a huge step up from earlier models, in leaving out such harmful elements in the latest models of iPhone can be seen both in positive or negative light. Due to high demand of new technology we are creating more demand for more product creation, and in such ‘positive’ steps in creating a product that has left out many harmful chemicals in creation of the newest technology, we create more ‘e-waste’ (Electronic Waste) from consumerism.
In New Zealand, to combat such high volumes of e-waste, we have created many programs to ‘reduce, reuse and recycle’. We can contact the New Zealand branch of Apple and recycle old products, being offered “Free of Charge”. There are various trade-in places both online and in-store, and in programs such as donations of old mobile phones to starship to raise both awareness and money for children in need.
References: https://www.getorchard.com/blog/iphone-environmental-impact/
http://goodelectronics.org/news-en/iphone-footprint-85-of-co2-emitted-at-manufacturing-stage
http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/decision-central/destroying-the-planet-one-iphone-at-a-time/
http://www.apple.com/nz/recycling/ipod-iphone/