130 Responses to “The Environmental Impact of Cell Phones”

1. 
   JO Says:
   September 17th, 2009 at 12:18 pm

   Great Banner! Very informative.

2. 
   t.rex Says:
   September 17th, 2009 at 4:34 pm

   Some of the numbers aren’t truly accurate, but it still gives one a good idea of how easy it would be to make a positive impact by changing their cellphone usage habits.

3. 
   Keira Says:
   September 17th, 2009 at 6:39 pm

   Love the graphic. Unbelievable stats… Who knew?!

4. 
   gina Says:
   September 17th, 2009 at 7:08 pm

   cool graphics, i will def unplug my charger more often, and always have recycled old cell phones anyway.

5. 
   Clickbank Product Reviews Says:
   September 17th, 2009 at 8:10 pm

   Cell phones are very good carriers for swine flu…and ultimately will cause the end of human existence!!!

6. 
   Scott D Says:
   September 17th, 2009 at 8:48 pm

   My Cell phone is charged from my solar panels and inverter….

7. 
   ELLEN Says:
   September 17th, 2009 at 9:10 pm

   WOW…..REALLY IMPRESSIVE AND QUITE ALOT TO THINK ABOUT!

8. 
   Aditya Dipankar Says:
   September 18th, 2009 at 12:57 am

   Interesting work. Made me think…

9. 
   Sell Your Mobile Says:
   September 18th, 2009 at 9:54 am

   Great banner! Really great work. Let’s hope it has an impact on peoples lifes as more needs to be done to raise awareness. Sell and recycle your old mobile for cash at Sell Your Mobile

10. 
    Jill Says:
    September 18th, 2009 at 11:52 am

    Wow! Had no idea.
    electronic cigarette

11. 
    McLaughlin Says:
    September 18th, 2009 at 12:52 pm

    Here in France we send older – but still working – mobile phones to Africa. Same with old PC’s.

12. 
    Prestige Says:
    September 18th, 2009 at 3:35 pm

    Thanks very informative, Im heading to the Dump with my mining hat to look for that gold

13. 
    Stacey Says:
    September 18th, 2009 at 4:01 pm

    Awesome website!! Love the graphics and the info is very interesting!

14. 
    KLK Says:
    September 18th, 2009 at 4:12 pm

    I checked some of these numbers and …WOW..great post!

15. 
    Sam Says:
    September 18th, 2009 at 11:14 pm

    I charge my cell phone with pure whale blubber.

16. 
    lovejahlive Says:
    September 19th, 2009 at 12:13 am

    Whale blubber? And all this time I have been using baby pandas. You learn something new every day.Very informative.

17. 
    Ashish Kalmegh Says:
    September 19th, 2009 at 5:48 am

    ohhh
    This is really breathtaking

18. 
    joey Says:
    September 19th, 2009 at 5:01 pm

    how much emission is there involved in photoshopping a banner?

19. 
    awef;alksdjf Says:
    September 19th, 2009 at 5:43 pm

    Stumbled!

20. 
    mimi Says:
    September 19th, 2009 at 6:02 pm

    something i love about my blackberry (and im sure other phones do it too) is the feature that allows the phone to turn on/off on a schedule.

    mines set to turn off at midnight every night, and turns on at eight. it saves me so much battery and its really handy.

21. 
    Mrs. Overboard Says:
    September 19th, 2009 at 6:05 pm

    It’s just simple… BUILD A NUCLEAR POWER PLANT! 4 Nuclear reactors will charge 100% of all the cell phones in the world, all day long, all year round, without one CO2 molecule.

22. 
    MrBurrows Says:
    September 19th, 2009 at 11:43 pm

    True facts: Recycling the phones would take more energy then making new ones from raw matiral, due to the fact that all parts would need to be separated, sorted, shipped, sold, shipped, melted down, sold, shipped, melted again to shape parts, put together, shipped, and finally sold to the customer.

23. 
    moss watson Says:
    September 20th, 2009 at 12:29 am

    This doesn’t even mention coltan
    http://www.cellular-news.com/coltan/

24. 
    Josh Says:
    September 20th, 2009 at 12:58 am

    Now, let’s talk about the environmental impact of the computers used to preach the environmental impact of humanity.

    I’m not saying you’re wrong, I’m saying you should fix your own footprint too.

    Just a thought.

25. 
    James Says:
    September 20th, 2009 at 2:14 am

    omitted is the fact that cellphone radiation kills bees

26. 
    JR Says:
    September 20th, 2009 at 3:31 am

    2 aluminum cans from any recycle bin fashioned into earpieces, connected by a long length of string would emit almost no emissions. However, the production of the string and aluminum cans emits 16 million tons of CO2 per year. Yelling is the future of communication and the greenest of all methods to date.

27. 
    abhinav Says:
    September 20th, 2009 at 6:47 am

    gr8…
    vErY iMpressiVe & enlIgHteniNg…………..
    rEallY…a fact

28. 
    imshandon Says:
    September 20th, 2009 at 7:50 am

    Whale blubber and baby pandas Huh? Over here they took away the eagle and spotted owl ( in which..Yes, They do taste like chicken ) so we have been reduced to butterfly’s and bunny’s to charge our phones….learn something new everyday.

29. 
    cholling Says:
    September 20th, 2009 at 9:19 am

    James: It was omitted because it’s not true.

30. 
    Bob Says:
    September 20th, 2009 at 9:34 am

    Your numbers are wildly inaccurate.

    My phone has a 1000 mAh battery @ 3.7V which is 13 kJ of energy. I charge it about once a week, comes to about 0.7 MJ of energy a year. The number of 4221 is too large by nearly four orders of magnitude. I don’t know what kind of cell phone uses 6000 times more energy than mine, but it would be too hot to put next to your ear. 4221 MJ works out to about 133 Watts running continuously for a year. You know those 100 W incandescent light bulbs? Know how hot they get? They use a lot more power than a cell phone.

    Please pull this wildly inaccurate and misleading post.

31. 
    Travis@personalwebguide.com Says:
    September 20th, 2009 at 10:19 am

    Wow, very informative (albeit disturbing) article on cell phone usage. Most people don’t think that something so tiny and harmless has the ability to create so much damage to that around us.

32. 
    Andy Cho Says:
    September 20th, 2009 at 10:27 am

    Bob: You only charge once a week ? You must have like a 25 minute plan a month- lol. I might as well walk around with a charger in my pocket!

33. 
    laura Says:
    September 20th, 2009 at 12:12 pm

    There is a charger called a Powerstick from EcoSol that works off the usb on your computer. It is compatible with all cellphones. You remove the charger from the computer to charge the phone thereby solving the always plugged in charger problem.

34. 
    Nigel Harris Says:
    September 20th, 2009 at 12:15 pm

    Yes I have a Powerstick also. Great little device that I carry around with me all the time.

    Nigel

35. 
    flvwin Says:
    September 20th, 2009 at 12:58 pm

    Love the graphics and the info is very interesting!free flv to avi

36. 
    Di Says:
    September 20th, 2009 at 2:56 pm

    I love this graphic- Wow. Your site and
    your cause is so cool. Keep up the good work.

37. 
    Travis Says:
    September 20th, 2009 at 4:07 pm

    WOW that’s awesome! i love the layout and it’s very informative! great job…

38. 
    ivar Says:
    September 20th, 2009 at 5:19 pm

    32 gallons of fuel is WRONG.
    One kilo of gasoline holds theoretically 43,9 Megajoule of energy. And abaout 32 in real life.
    And that is 1,43 litre of gas. wich is 0,375 gallons.

    4,221 MJ is equal to a light bulb of 8 watts thats on for a year.
    320 gallons of fuel would be enough to heat my house for one year, but a 80 watt oven would not.

39. 
    ivar Says:
    September 20th, 2009 at 5:23 pm

    sorry meant 0,133 watts!!!!

40. 
    ivar Says:
    September 20th, 2009 at 5:31 pm

    HAHA, anyway, the banner says the phone uses 4,221 MJ equal to “32 gallons” of fuel. but the transfer network uses 939 MJ thats equal to “7,3 gallons” of fuel. i wonder how much fuel is wasted on people that does not do their homework at scool.

41. 
    AmericanCR Says:
    September 20th, 2009 at 10:35 pm

    Without a cellphone many people will feel worthless and unproductive, it seems that these devices came to stay for ever with humans on an everyday bases.
    Recycling them and making more respectful to environmental issues is a great idea, replacing them with materials that will not harm the earth, the drinking waters is the right thing to do. Using these cell phones for working and emergencies purposes is what they were manufacture for first time meanings also and not really to drop them in the streets or the forest as garbage or disposal. including batteries too. For you that want to shop for one on sale with newer technology http://solidamerica.com/Stores_Solidamerica_Amazones/phones/Cellphones_Telefonos.htm in America’s best stores online. Thanks for visiting.

42. 
    Matt Walsh Says:
    September 21st, 2009 at 1:08 am

    So if there are 140,000,000 cell phones in the world, and this accounts for 4.7 tonnes of gold, this means every cell phone would have 14,000 lbs of gold in them! You’re fucking outrageous, quite lying to everyone. SO MANY OF YOUR NUMBERS ARE WRONG.

43. 
    Dan Says:
    September 21st, 2009 at 4:15 am

    Going to go unplug my charger right now.

44. 
    concerned globalist Says:
    September 21st, 2009 at 4:26 am

    Aren’t they toxic waste though? I’m thinking of all the crap that’s being used in cell phones …
    If manufacturers had to recycle their products we would be living on a much cleaner planet for sure. (Because right now there’s no or very little additional cost to pollution)

45. 
    markjohnson Says:
    September 21st, 2009 at 7:24 am

    @Matt Walsh

    You should maybe double check your math before accusing others of not having the right figures.

    By your estimate of 14,000lb of gold per phone, with 140,000,000 phones, that equals1,960,000,000,000lb, which equals roughly 889,041,045.2 tonnes…

46. 
    manish Says:
    September 21st, 2009 at 8:45 am

    i didnt change my cell from last 4 years…

47. 
    Yay Says:
    September 21st, 2009 at 12:46 pm

    Makes me feel good for keeping my phone off most of the time. And for charging it maybe once a week.

48. 
    Jess Says:
    September 21st, 2009 at 12:49 pm

    @Ivar

    The MJ figure you are referring to includes the impact of the entire life-cycle of the phone, including production, destruction, and usage which you are referring to. You are right in that the actually energy use when in your hands is minimal, however this is typically only 5% of the total energy usage during it’s life-cycle. The production phase accounts for about 80% of that energy use.

    Hope that helps.

49. 
    Sam Says:
    September 21st, 2009 at 8:15 pm

    So it says it’s equivalent to that much gas and will produce that much CO2 but it’s not actually producing any CO2 at all is it?

50. 
    Chris R Says:
    September 21st, 2009 at 9:15 pm

    yes but the new HTC Leo is so cool.

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