Let’s talk about digital pollution 🚮 📱

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We use digital devices on a daily basis but do we really know what the cost of these devices is? Not the one displayed in the shop but the cost to the planet.

The manufacture of our digital tools requires the use of processes such as the extraction and refining of metals, a source of pollution. At this level, one might be tempted to say: yes, but devices are getting smaller and smaller, everything is dematerialised, so there is less pollution! Too bad this is not always the case. Paradoxically, the more we « dematerialise » and « miniaturise », the more material and energy we use.

Take the case of a laptop. It requires dozens of metals from all over the world: tantalum (from Congo), lithium (from Bolivia), gold (from Australia) and rare earths from China. The extraction of these minerals is very costly for the environment: it requires a lot of (fossil) energy, water and other resources. This pollution is very often invisible to the end-users or to the countries of destination (referred to as ‘imported pollution’).

The reality is no different for mobile phones either. You may not know it, but your smartphone contains on average more than 70 different materials: plastic, glass, ferrous metals (nickel, copper, etc.), precious metals (gold, silver, platinum, etc.) and other metals such as cobalt or carbon. The manufacture of a smartphone requires around fifty metals, i.e. twice as many as for an old generation mobile phone. The extraction of these raw materials, which are essential to the manufacture of a mobile phone, has a considerable impact on the environment: greenhouse gas emissions, pollution, etc.

One might think that the pollution generated by our smartphones stops as soon as they arrive in our hands, but this is not true. This pollution continues throughout their life and in ways that are often overlooked. Our digital devices are increasingly connected to the internet, and its operation causes a lot of pollution.

Contrary to what most people think, the Internet is not ‘immaterial’. It is made up of a multitude of computer equipment (computers, cables, antennas, etc.), which allow the storage and transfer of data (messages, photos, videos, emails, music, etc.) to our home terminals. In addition to the construction of the equipment which pollutes as shown above, all these digital technologies are powered, thus generating a significant ecological cost.

Streaming in general (videos, video games) would represent around 60% of data flows on the internet, due to the weight of the data processed.  According to the Think Tank The Shift Project, the consumption of video streaming (VOD, pornography, YouTube, social networks, etc.) would emit nearly 1% of global CO₂ emissions.

Eco-responsibility to meet the challenges of tomorrow

• We have seen above that the manufacture of our equipment is even more polluting than its use. It would therefore make sense to extend the life of our IT equipment. This is not easy because nowadays manufacturers rely on the obsolescence (which we will develop in a future article) of their products to encourage us to buy new ones. To do this, they use the fragility of objects, the exorbitant cost of repairs (who hasn’t received a repair bill equal to the price of a new mobile?), the shortage of spare parts, etc. So don’t give in to the various traps:

• As long as your device works, there is no need to buy a new one. Maybe a new console has just come out, a new smartphone, more powerful, more beautiful, more « fashionable », but ask yourself the following question: do you really need it (and wouldn’t saving money do you any good?).
• Try to repair your damaged equipment before you try to replace it.
• Buy second-hand, it’s cheaper and less polluting, and choose devices with the lowest possible energy consumption (it will also help your electricity bill).

• Turn off your box and TV set: switched on 24 hours a day, an ADSL box and the associated TV set consume 150 to 300 kWh per year, which is the annual electricity consumption of 5 to 10 15-inch laptops used 8 hours a day
• Limit very high definition videos:
• Adapt the resolution to your screen: what’s the point of watching a YouTube video on your mobile in high definition? Your phone doesn’t fully support it, so you’re loading extra data unnecessarily. If possible, choose an automatic resolution so that the resolution adapts to your device.
• Block automatic reading on social networks
• Regularly sort through your e-mails and delete all unnecessary ones. Delete SPAM automatically. The more emails you have, the more space you need on remote servers to save them. And the more space you need, the more it consumes.
• Store locally rather than using the cloud