Well, Now I hate my phone.
The environmental impacts of the production of a cell phone even before it is manufactured is actually very significant.
[A bit more info.]
Raw materials such as gold, copper, palladium, crude oil and silicone must be mined and processed which is destructive to the surrounding ecosystem. According to cellphones.org it's estimated that over 220 pounds of mine waste is generated to extract the gold for a singel cell phonhe. The greatest impact comes from where the raw materials are purchased. Many of the metals used in electronics falls under what is known as "conflict minerals". Gold ore is mined in the Dominican Republic of Congo funding civil conflict. In areas of conflict, people are forced to mine whether they want to or not. It is not uncommon for people to be hired at the point of a gun, if they refuse, their lives and the lives of their loved ones are threatened. Actual working conditions for the miners are beyond horrible and many times lead to injury or death.
The production of a cell phone is the process which has the most environmental impact, with estimates of as much as 50% of the phones negative impact occurring during the manufacturing phase. The energy used and caustic waste created in the printing of wiring boards exposes workers to toxic chemicals such as lead, cadmium, mercury, and poly vinyl chlorides which contribute to an array of health problems, such as cancer, neurological damage, birth defects and more.
Most cell phones are manufactured in China, the fossil fuels consumed by shipping phones to places across the world are significant, but not unlike other product manufactured out of country.Sadly the carbon footprint left from the transporting of goods out of China and to various places in the world is a small impact compared the other facets of a cell phone's life cycle.
Just using cell phones has both environmental and societal effects. The average cell phone uses 5 kWh per year when you multiply that by the 3.5 billion cellphones used world wide the energy use quickly adds up. An argument in much debate is that of the decline of the worlds honeybee population over the past decade and the possibility of cell phone use contributing to it. Bee pollination impacts a large percentage of what we eat and if cell phone emissions are truly effecting them that is a very significant environmental impact.
The social impacts of cell phone use are astronomical. It is common knowledge that cell phone use and driving are a bad mix. According to the New York Times, the likelihood that a driver using a cell phone will crash is equal to that of someone with a .08 percent blood alcohol level, the point at which drivers are generally considered intoxicated. Each year 342,000 auto accident injuries (Harvard School of Public Health), 2,600 traffic deaths (Human Factors and Ergonomics Society), and $43 billion in property damage, lost wages, medical bills and fatalities (The Washington Post) are attributed to cell phone usage and distraction.
The average cell phone contains a dollars worth of gold inlaid into it's boards and pins, but according to the EPA, cell phones have a shorter lifespan than any other major consumer electronics, and 65,000 tons of electronic garbage or "e-waste" is created by cell phones per year, discarding or incinerating reusable and precious resources. The EPA conducted a study of 34 different cell phones putting them through the conditions that simulated those of being in a landfill. All of the phones leaked seventeen times the federal threshold of toxic amounts of metals such as lead, mercury, cadmium, nickel and beryllium.
As of May of 2014 companies with US stocks are required to report to the SEC whether their resources are conflict minerals, but it was found to be a violation of the first amendment to force companies to have to post it to the public. It is not only socially responsible to stop purchasing from suppliers that get raw materials from conflict areas but it is moral and ethical as well. A company should be transparent and honest, letting consumers know where the materials in their phones are coming from. If a company posts that they are purchasing raw materials from conflict-free areas and informs their customers as to why, this will help raise consumer awareness, which could help promote responsible mining and possibly even drive improvements in the conditions of conflict-mining areas a little bit at a time.
Improving the lifespan of a cell phone by making it modifiable, repairable and resilient is one way to help keep waste out of the landfills and when it finally is time to retire the phone establishing a recycling program for old phones will help with that as well. An incentive program encouraging consumers to send their phones back for recycling could allow for the company to reuse many of the limited resources and precious metals contained in the old and obsolete components. These are only a few things that a company can do to improve its corporate social responsibility practices,and with such a huge industry it seems to me that it is high time the public starts supporting the companies who are socially responsible.