What is the Carbon Footprint of Refurbished Mobiles?
These days, it’s common to talk about ways you can reduce your carbon footprint. Suggestions that tend to come up include changing what you eat, how you travel and how you dispose of your waste. If you’ve read anything about refurbished smartphones, you’ve probably heard that they’re both affordable and great for the environment. So what is the carbon footprint of refurbished phones, and is it worth buying refurbished in order to reduce your own impact on the planet?
Refurbished smartphones are more than just second-hand smartphones. While buying used smartphones from private sellers is usually a huge gamble, professionals have checked and tested refurbished phones to ensure high levels of quality. Proper phone refurbishers put their pre-loved smartphones through detailed inspection, testing, cleaning and repair processes to make sure they measure up to Australia’s high standards of sale quality.
Frank Mobile is a company dedicated to protecting the environment and making positive changes in the world. Our refurbished iPhones and Android phones are better for both the planet and your bank balance. Here’s the Frank Mobile guide to the carbon footprint of refurbished phones so that you can make an informed choice.
What Does “Carbon Footprint” Mean for Mobile Phones?
A carbon footprint is the total amount of greenhouse gases that an entity, such as an individual, business or product, releases into the atmosphere. Australia’s carbon footprint significantly exceeds its size and population, with fossil fuel exports causing 80% of emissions. While the average Australian has a footprint of about 15 tonnes of C02 each year, your mileage may vary based on lifestyle.
What determines the carbon footprint of smartphones is the total amount of greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide, emitted through the phone’s entire life cycle. While disposing of a phone adds more waste to Australia’s landfills, the bulk of a smartphone's carbon emissions are produced during its production process. Refurbished phones promote sustainability by cutting down on the number of new phones that need to be produced and sparing existing phones from ending up at the dump.
The Carbon Footprint of Refurbished Phones
The refurbished smartphone market is flourishing. With the cost of living up, people are tired of paying top dollar for flagship smartphones, and refurbished models provide an elegant solution. With climate change one of the most pressing issues of the day, many people are looking for ways to take action, large and small. Buying second-hand phones is obviously better for you financially, but is a refurbished phone’s carbon footprint a worthwhile factor for eco-conscious shoppers to consider?
Manufacturing is the stage of a smartphone’s life cycle that both consumes the most resources and causes the highest amount of pollution. In fact, up to three-quarters of the carbon footprint of smartphones occurs during the manufacturing process.
The process of manufacturing a smartphone is obviously a resource-heavy one. But often it’s more sinister than that. Child slavery is common in cobalt and coltan mines, which produce elements commonly used in smartphone production. Other regular smartphone ingredients like tin, tungsten, gold and tantalum are often referred to as “blood minerals” due to helping fund armed conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
If your priorities are ethics and sustainability, refurbished phones are definitely the best choice.
Refurbished Vs New: A Carbon Footprint Comparison
How does the carbon footprint of refurbished phones refer to new handsets? Here’s a quick comparison of the main resources involved:
Raw materials
A refurbished smartphone is ready to embark on its second life without a second manufacturing process, meaning it already cuts out the use of raw materials. The refurbishing process requires approximately 87% less virgin material than the manufacturing of a new one, saving hundreds of megatonnes of precious metals.
Waste production
The mining and refining of raw materials for a single new phone creates 200 times more waste than the weight of the phone. A refurbished smartphone generates 89.02% less waste, meaning that higher refurbished smartphone sales correspond with less e-waste.
Water usage
It takes a surprising amount of water to make a smartphone: more than 12,000 litres, which equals around 160 bathtubs of water. Compared to a newly produced phone, a refurbished smartphone saves over 76,000 litres of water, enough to meet the drinking water needs of a human being for 65 years (at the recommended intake of 3.2 litres per day).
Add all these factors up, and you can see that a refurbished phone’s carbon footprint is the clear winner compared to a store-bought handset.
The Environmental Impact of E-waste in Australia
In Australia, millions of electronic devices like TVs, microwaves and, of course, smartphones are thrown away every year. E-waste is the fastest-growing form of waste in Australia, and the Global E-Waste Monitor 2024 reported that it’s rising by 2.6 million tonnes annually. By 2030, the amount of total e-waste nationwide is expected to rise to 657,000 tonnes.
E-waste is responsible for most of the toxic chemicals found in landfills, which are harmful to ecosystems. Chemicals found in electronic devices like arsenic, lead and mercury can pollute the soil and water and cause risks to wildlife and human health.
Although the carbon footprint of refurbished phones is impressive, it’s not the only reason to buy refurbished. Cutting down on the amount of e-waste in Australia is a worthy cause, too.
How Choosing Refurbished Helps a Circular Economy
The circular economy is a system based on regeneration rather than waste, with processes like reuse, recycling and refurbishing common practices. It’s a departure from our current process of taking resources from the earth, using them to manufacture products and discarding those products afterwards. The circular economy is a sustainable approach that still supports jobs and economic growth while cutting back on resources, pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and general waste.
Refurbishing tech such as smartphones supports the shift to a circular economy in a number of ways. It reduces the amount of e-waste, lowers the carbon footprint, conserves natural resources, extends the lifespan of products and prioritises repairing and restoring existing tech over constantly buying new. Purchasing a refurbished smartphone is a simple way to support an economy built around sustainability and maximum use out of products, rather than constantly chasing the latest models.
Reduce Your Carbon Footprint, Buy Refurbished Phones at Frank Mobile
Let’s be Frank: Buying your next smartphone refurbished isn’t going to single-handedly save the world, but it’s an easy way to reduce your carbon footprint. With Frank Mobile, you can save up to 70% off the recommended price by purchasing our refurbished iPhones, Androids, tablets, watches and more.
Frank Mobile’s refurbished iPhones include popular flagship models like the iPhone 16 and iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max. Savings of hundreds of dollars are just one of the many reasons our customers are satisfied with their refurbished iPhone purchases.
Frank Mobile is committed to positive change beyond just ensuring our refurbished smartphones are environmentally friendly. Our commitment to corporate social responsibility includes a partnership with One Tree Planted to restore nature and biodiversity. Our whole business model is based on recycling and sustainability, including shipping and packaging.
For help finding the best and most environmentally-friendly refurbished smartphones, speak to a human on 1300 882 674 or email befrank@frankmobile.com.au.
