Roughly 5.3 billion mobile phones will become e-waste this year

Shawn Knight

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Staff member
In brief: Mobile phones are ubiquitous in most parts of the industrial world with some 16 billion devices possessed worldwide. Of then, nearly a third are expected to be decommissioned this year and that has some in recycling circles voicing concerns.

Experts expect roughly 5.3 billion mobile phones to drop out of service in 2022. Stacked flat atop each other (assuming each device is around 9mm thick), the discarded phones would stand 120 times higher than the International Space Station and reach 1/8th of the way to the Moon.

Despite containing valuable material like gold, silver, copper and palladium, experts believe most of the retired handsets will end up in junk drawers or closets. Those that aren't hoarded will probably find their way to trash bins and wind up in landfills or incinerators.

Interestingly enough, mobile phones rank fourth among small electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) that are most commonly hoarded by consumers.

According to surveys conducted between June and September 2022 of 8,775 European households across six countries, the average household has 74 e-products including tech gadgets like phones and tablets as well as appliances such as toaster and hair dryers. On average, 13 are considered hoarded (nine are owned but not used, and four are broken).

The top five hoarded small EEE products in Europe include:

  • Small consumer electronics and accessories (e.g. headphones, remote controls)
  • Small household equipment (e.g. clocks, irons,)
  • Small information technology equipment (e.g. external hard drives, routers, keyboards, mice)
  • Mobile and smartphones
  • Small equipment for food preparation (e.g. toasters, food processing, grills)

The majority of survey takers (46 percent) said they hang on to devices because they believe they might use them again in the future. Others (15 percent) said they aim to sell hoarded items or give them away, while 13 percent reported the items have sentimental value or might be worth something in the future (nine percent). Seven percent of respondents said they don't know how to dispose of old item.

Image credit: Eirik Solheim

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They need to make them like computers - easy to work on, upgrade and replace parts right down to the CPU. Every single manufacturer builds cellphones for obsolescence so you have to buy a new one.
 
They need to make them like computers - easy to work on, upgrade and replace parts right down to the CPU. Every single manufacturer builds cellphones for obsolescence so you have to buy a new one.

Not possible on that scale I'm afraid, and even it was, the idea would never take off. Your average consumer does not want that, they want a simple box that just works and never breaks.

And you can effectively say ALL devices are "built for obsolescence" unless you're a retro computing enthusiast. Doesn't matter if it's a phone, laptop, game console or even a desktop PC, it will all eventually be retired. Even with a desktop you'll still be recycling components at the end of the day, even if you're replacing them one by one.

The key thing is to recycle the e-waste properly.
 
Not possible on that scale I'm afraid, and even it was, the idea would never take off. Your average consumer does not want that, they want a simple box that just works and never breaks.

And you can effectively say ALL devices are "built for obsolescence" unless you're a retro computing enthusiast. Doesn't matter if it's a phone, laptop, game console or even a desktop PC, it will all eventually be retired. Even with a desktop you'll still be recycling components at the end of the day, even if you're replacing them one by one.

The key thing is to recycle the e-waste properly.
Smartphones like the note 4 had both user replaceable batteries and displays/motherboards/buttons that could be easily replaced with just a screwdriver, and are smaller them modern phones. "its not possible" is just cope.
 
There will be no solution to the mobile phone waste problem until people stop lusting after the latest, greatest fashionable hyped up model and declaring their phone "outmoded or old fashioned". As long as people have money to waste they will continue to buy things they don't really need.
 
Smartphones like the note 4 had both user replaceable batteries and displays/motherboards/buttons that could be easily replaced with just a screwdriver, and are smaller them modern phones. "its not possible" is just cope.
I will say, even though it is true what you said, I will add, I really like the current design just because it allows waterproofing.

But yes, there must be a way to accomplish both things without having the current wasteful ways we currently have.

I will add that sadly, Android phones, due to becoming unsupported after 3 years, it makes this a lot worse.

I dont like Apple, but at the very least, their devices are "allowed" to last longer.
 
Lately I'm seeing a return to the bad old days of wireless companies not wanting to have devices on their networks that they didn't sell you themselves. Worse, every few years they flip a switch and "de-certify" perfectly good phones that they DID sell to their customers. None of this should be legal.
 
They need to make them like computers - easy to work on, upgrade and replace parts right down to the CPU. Every single manufacturer builds cellphones for obsolescence so you have to buy a new one.

I don't want an mobile phone that is 3X as large simply because some tree hugger is convinced that my phone is going to destroy the planet.

Hint: It's not.
 
Well, there I am, hoarding mobile phones. the oldest I have is from circa 2003, I think. They almost all work, although some of them have a battery that is about to give up their soul (but the oldest doesn't, it's a Nokia that lasts a week with one charge), hahaha.
 
Smartphones like the note 4 had both user replaceable batteries and displays/motherboards/buttons that could be easily replaced with just a screwdriver, and are smaller them modern phones. "its not possible" is just cope.
Samnsung Galaxy Note 4... My last loved mobile phone. since then I see them all as common, undifferentiated. Too bad the one I have had a profound failure due to a damn connector that I didn't fix in time.
 
Smartphones like the note 4 had both user replaceable batteries and displays/motherboards/buttons that could be easily replaced with just a screwdriver, and are smaller them modern phones. "its not possible" is just cope.
I didn't say modular design was impossible. I was specifically referring to the post above me, in which the commenter suggested a replaceable CPU.

And again - people do NOT want it.
 
And yet we as Americans get sassed all the damned time about waste....reading this article if it is even close to accurate I have to say wtf is wrong with Europeans???
 
So sad. Each phone should include a few % tax toward researching better ways to recycle batteries and electronics.
I am helping the cause though. With latest phones from Samsung, I can go up to 3 years without noticing any slowdowns.
Cheap devices are the ones that probably become unusable soonest.
 
I have a 8+ year old Samsung Note 3 running just fine on its fourth battery and A11 via LineageOS. Thank you Apple and copycats for eliminating such possibilities and "saving" the environment.
 
Isn't it about time for the phone manufacturers to be required, by law, to recover all phones after they come to end of their useful life or the owner wants to upgrade, etc ?

Like the old days of glass soda bottles, there could be a simple reward of $20 or so when the owner returns the device and the manufacturer's then can reclaim, strip, or sell for parts these devices in order to end or at least lessen the amount of waste ....
 
I will say, even though it is true what you said, I will add, I really like the current design just because it allows waterproofing.

But yes, there must be a way to accomplish both things without having the current wasteful ways we currently have.

I will add that sadly, Android phones, due to becoming unsupported after 3 years, it makes this a lot worse.

I dont like Apple, but at the very least, their devices are "allowed" to last longer.
Android "support", as always, is WAY overplayed. unlike apple, android dont just stop being able to do things because daddy google stopped updating them. Apps still target decade old android versions. A nexus 5 running android 6 can still run apps the same way a new phone can. Maybe not as well, but they still work.
Samnsung Galaxy Note 4... My last loved mobile phone. since then I see them all as common, undifferentiated. Too bad the one I have had a profound failure due to a damn connector that I didn't fix in time.
I miss mine, it was done in by being a carrier phone, there was no unlocked note 4. RIP note 4.
 
Android "support", as always, is WAY overplayed. unlike apple, android dont just stop being able to do things because daddy google stopped updating them. Apps still target decade old android versions. A nexus 5 running android 6 can still run apps the same way a new phone can. Maybe not as well, but they still work.
That its true, should've phrased as "Android OS versions" which might still "force" you to dump the device.
 
Isn't it about time for the phone manufacturers to be required, by law, to recover all phones after they come to end of their useful life or the owner wants to upgrade, etc ?

Like the old days of glass soda bottles, there could be a simple reward of $20 or so when the owner returns the device and the manufacturer's then can reclaim, strip, or sell for parts these devices in order to end or at least lessen the amount of waste ....

It's a nice idea but I think that recovery is a very specialized process that would be prohibitive to any of the smaller manufacturers to do themselves, although it wouldn't be unreasonable for them to accept the returns and get them to the right place (but in that case it should probably be on the carriers/stores that sell them rather than the manufacturer)

It would be nice to make the options (like amazon) more visible to people
 
There is a small percentage of mobile users that don't actually use apps that require constant updates of any sort. I don't need or want a "smart" phone because any internet I want to engage with is done at home on a PC. I wouldn't have a mobile of any kind except for needing to receive an SMS code to complete some online banking or purchase operations. The sad fact is there is no mobile network coverage where I live so whatever I spend on tomorrow's wonder device is of no use to me even if it was free.
 
Android "support", as always, is WAY overplayed. unlike apple, android dont just stop being able to do things because daddy google stopped updating them. Apps still target decade old android versions. A nexus 5 running android 6 can still run apps the same way a new phone can. Maybe not as well, but they still work.
I miss mine, it was done in by being a carrier phone, there was no unlocked note 4. RIP note 4.
mine was unlocked, coming from AT&T, you know, it needed some "fix"
 
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