Technology has long been a driver of economic development throughout the world and one of its very significant evolution is the smartphone. Now more than ever, the device is being integrated into all aspects of our lives – from accessing healthcare to managing our finances and handling our businesses. We have become very dependent on smartphones and a clear indication is the fact that so many people now have them.

Today, there is an estimated 3.8 billion smartphone users worldwide and a global population of 7.8 billion. Global smartphone penetration rate is also estimated to have reached 46.45% in 2020. In 2008 – the first full year that Apple’s iPhone was available – an estimated 12% of the global population had a smartphone. By 2014 that number was estimated at 37% and now in 2021, a projected estimate of 48.7%. In other words, more than four out of every ten people in the world are currently equipped with a smartphone. So what happens when these devices become faulty – do we fix or discard them?

Impact on the environment & the economy

Every year, different types of smartphones and electronic devices flood the market and manufacturers are increasingly designing them in ways that make it challenging to repair or replace individual components. This is in turn affecting the environmental impact of our digital lives as we are voraciously consuming devices that are both ecologically unsustainable and harmful to us.

Companies like Apple and Samsung have been known to deliberately discontinue software updates long before their hardware stops functioning. In December of 2017, it was discovered that Apple was intentionally slowing down phones with older batteries, forcing consumers to buy new releases with newer software updates and the promise of a more long-lasting battery.  The designs have also become harder to take apart for repairs by gluing components together unnecessarily, or using non-standard Pentalobe screws which makes it difficult for end users to get inside and replacements are often problematic.

In Europe and other western countries, access to third-party repairers for smartphones and other electronic devices is very limited due to restrictions on the supply of spare parts and warranty conditions that do not allow consumers to repair their devices themselves – if they try to, they lose their warranty. In some cases, they can be sued for attempting to repair machineries as is the case for John Deree’s farm tractors. There are also not enough authorised company repair shops for consumers in addition to the high cost of getting the repairs done. Consumers are discarding damaged phones because it has become accepted that shelf-life of electronics are short and it is cheaper to buy a new one than repair.

Over 80 million Nigerians live on less than $2 a day, yet more than 90 million use internet enabled-gadgets. Why? Are we consuming e-waste sold cheap? And while access to third-party repairers is not a problem in Nigeria – in fact, it is a huge market of third-party repair technicians skilled in the repair of various kinds of electronic devices – getting the needed spare parts is quite difficult. A huge percentage of the spare parts used to repair phones and other devices are imitation products from China because they are cheaper, but they do not last very long. As the demand for latest devices and long-lasting repairs increases, third-party repairers have resorted to importing used and discarded phones from Europe and other parts of the western world.

As a result, Nigeria has become the dumping ground for electronic waste with an estimated 500 containers, each carrying about 500,000 used electronic devices entering the country’s ports every month from the United States, Europe and Asia. The world is currently generating e-waste faster than it can recycle or reuse it and Africa (especially Nigeria) is bearing the brunt of it. In 2019, the United States alone generated 13.1 million metric tonnes of e-waste, 80 percent of which was exported to poorer countries where they are sold for re-use, mined for raw materials or abandoned in landfills. 

Apart from polluting our environment with e-waste, we’re also putting a lot of pressure on natural resources and enabling child labour and conflict in many under-developed countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo which is currently facing a crisis over the mining of Cobalt used in the manufacture of smartphones and electronic devices by Apple, Samsung, Google and other mega companies.

It’s been reported that China controls the world’s cobalt supply having bought up most of the mines in Congo and are among the biggest buyers of cobalt extracted with child labour. The cobalt purchased from such slave mines is then sold to major component manufacturers and consumer electronics companies across the world. Amnesty International published a report in 2017 which stated that consumer companies aren’t doing enough to tackle the exploitations happening in their supply chains.

The more we consume and discard electronic devices instead of repairing or recycling them, the more these atrocities are enabled. By waiting longer to upgrade our smartphones and other electronic devices, the less demand there will be to manufacture more phones. This helps to conserve our resources and reduces the number of phones that poison the environment in e-waste dumping grounds. Research has shown that extending the lifespan of smartphones and other electronic devices by just one year can save as much carbon emissions as taking two million cars off the road each year.

What can we do?

The right to repair refers to consumers’ ability to have their products repaired or choose their own service providers. This includes being able to repair their devices themselves, rather than being forced by default to use the device manufacturer’s services or parts.

To reduce our digital carbon footprint and environmental impact (manufacturing one smartphone consumes as much energy as using it for ten years), manufacturers should design phones with the intention of reusing and recycling them rather than waiting till the damage is done to find solutions. We must find ways to keep our devices from becoming prematurely obsolete, and that means companies need to stop using software updates to push us into buying new devices when the old ones are working just fine. Devices should also come with a manual on how to fix problems that might arise and the exact specification of readily available spare parts (provided by the device manufacturer) to be used. Hardware designs should also be done in ways that isn’t extremely difficult for consumers to get into their phones when it needs repairing.

The longer the shelf-life of our smartphones, the better for the environment as fewer natural resources are mined and lesser waste generated. In addition, the push to extend the lifetimes of our devices will lower the financial barriers to digital inclusion and stimulate innovation in sustainable device design.

The fight to remove barriers to repair is gaining momentum in countries like Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. Legislative reforms have been introduced in the European Union and Massachusetts. France has introduced a Repairability Index requiring electrical and electronic equipment companies to inform consumers about their products’ repairability on a scale of one to ten. This takes into account the ease of repairability, availability and price of spare parts and availability of technical repair documents.

For the benefit of consumers, the right to repair legislation must be taken seriously as well as other actions such as repair information by manufacturers, repairability scoring, repair community and resources with consistent reparability standards and data developed across the globe. The hard work starts now for a universal Right to Repair in Nigeria.

By: Muneerah Abdulrahman & Charles Ikem for PolicyLab Africa
Featured Image courtesy of Open Media