BP's recent difficulties in the Gulf once again highlighted the price we pay for our consumerism. Here is Silicon Valley, in some ways we're at its epicenter, the first in the office to have the latest smartphone, 3D TV, or other gadget that sees a few seasons of use before being cast away.
This reality was made clear to me just this afternoon as I drove through downtown Los Gatos. The lines were already forming in front of our local Apple store. But for every iPhone 4G, the future of some less fortunate Nokia (News- Alert), Samsung, or even previous generation iPhone is called into question.
A small minority makes it to eBay, Craig's List, while some are handed down to the kids. However, for the majority, the next stop is a dark drawer or closet, or a donation bin. There is a price to pay at both ends of the food chain… both creation and destruction.
This reality was made clear to me just this afternoon as I drove through downtown Los Gatos. The lines were already forming in front of our local Apple store. But for every iPhone 4G, the future of some less fortunate Nokia (News- Alert), Samsung, or even previous generation iPhone is called into question.
A small minority makes it to eBay, Craig's List, while some are handed down to the kids. However, for the majority, the next stop is a dark drawer or closet, or a donation bin. There is a price to pay at both ends of the food chain… both creation and destruction.
Most phones, though engineered and branded by the likes of Apple andMotorola (News -Alert), are manufactured by a small group of Electronics Manufacturing Services companies such as Flextronics and Foxconn that are located in lower cost venues such as China.In the fiercely competitive Smartphone sector, the quest for lower costs results in expected consequences. Given recent press coverage of worker issues at Foxconn, one could conclude that the issue is recent. In fact, it is just the opposite. Back in 2006, a seminal study conducted by SOMO analyzed working conditions and exposure to toxic substances at major EMSs and ODMs. Consider it 'The Jungle' shifted exactly 100 years into the future. Hooks replaced by conveyors and hoofs by microchips. What happens to phones at the end of their lifespan is probably more disturbing, and makes the factory cities of Shenzhen and Nanjing look like Shangri-La.
Over one billion phones are purchased each year, and close to half of these are replacements. Maybe half of these see some future use, while a quarter of a billion phones are sent to their death. RoHS is a step in the right direction in minimizing toxic substances, but it is not universal, does not address batteries to the fullest extent, and does not reduce the sheer volume of electronic waste. A while back National Geographic ran an excellent expose of just where our 'recycled' electronic waste sometimes ends up. Coverage of what happens at the end of the consumer electronic lifecycle is still few and far between.
I'm not trying to change the behavior of the Apple's (News - Alert) of the world. What is achievable, however, is better accountability along the process. We're beginning to see the first changes on the supply side, but whether these changes are only temporal or will take hold is yet to be seen. For returns, when purchasing a new phone, for example, the customer should have the option of returning any number of older phones to the vendor or mobile operator. A documented, socially and environmentally friendly recycling / teardown procedure would then come into play, equivalent to that which exists in other industries. This is one approach. The other? Minimizing the price we pay by hanging up that fanboy shirt for another day.
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