To combat the world’s growing emissions due to phone manufacturing, Kingfisher is introducing the Mobile Phone Amnesty movement, which is to be 365 days dedicated to creating change around mobile phone ownership behaviour. The group also hopes to curb carbon emissions, and decrease the billions of devices being discarded every year.
The Mobile Phone Amnesty movement is also to be a year “of action designed to generate global awareness and drive device circulation”, Kingfisher says.
The cost of producing new phones to keep up with the demand of users wanting new devices accounts for approximately 83% of a phone’s carbon emissions come from manufacturing, shipping, and first-year usage, according to Kingfisher.
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If phone owners kept their phones for only an extra two years, that act alone could reduce its CO2 impact by 43%.
The new movement is also timely as many households are looking for ways to be more eco-conscious but even more focused on saving money, which they can do by holding their smartphones for a little longer.
In a recent study, Australians are open to change, and 41% surveyed are prepared to buy a second-hand phone, with 35% of households owning at least one second-hand device.
The World Phone Amnesty is centred on creating a year of action to generate global awareness and drive device circulation because globally, approximately 5.3 billion phones are prematurely discarded every year. This number partially rolls into a projected yearly total of an eye-watering 50 million tonnes of e-waste.
Kingfisher says, however, there is another way.
“It is unrealistic to expect consumers to use a single device for that long. But while we understand the desire to own a new phone, the World Phone Amnesty highlights the benefits of extending the lifecycles of all the other ones, in order to maximise the potential of each device to reduce its carbon footprint,” Georgiann Reigle, Kingfisher Co-Founder and CEO, said.
It comes back to education because Kingfisher claims that many individuals are unaware of the value and positive effects of adding phones back into circulation for others to buy and use, because giving a device a second, third, and fourth life can have a substantial impact.
The data supporting the urgency of the World Phone Amnesty speak for themselves:
● “Globally, almost 180 million used mobile devices will be sold in the circular economy in 2023, while approximately one billion will be sent to landfill and billions more will be left in drawers, closets, cupboards or garages, tossed into waste bins, or headed for incineration.”
● “In 2023, there are 6.92 billion smartphone users – 85.95% of the world’s population.”
● “Each year, 5.3 billion phones are thrown away – which placed end-to-end would stretch to the moon and back.”
● “81kg of carbon dioxide is produced for every brand-new phone created – that’s enough carbon dioxide to fill 40,000 balloons.”
● “A second-life phone used for two years creates 24.6kg CO2e less carbon emissions per year compared to a new phone used for three years.”
● “Extending the life of a device removes the need to extract 82kg of raw materials associated with the production of a new one.”
To launch the World Phone Amnesty, Kingfisher will release details at the inaugural SXSW Sydney next week with a World Phone Amnesty web portal, which gives Australians more information on trading in or upgrading their mobile phones.
