The environment has been under constant stress from human activities. An energy crisis in the 1970s and the publication of Limits to Growth eventually contributed to heightened awareness of environmental impacts contributed by human activities. This eventually led to the formulation of the Life Cycle Assessment. The Life Cycle Assessment is a ‘cradle-to-grave’ approach of carrying out the evaluation of effects that a product has on the environment over the entire product life. The product analyzed in this project is a mobile phone. There are currently 1.5 billion mobile phone subscribers in the world and this number is fast increasing. This means that the rate of disposal is great as general consumer behavior suggests frequent replacement of mobile phones.
The Life Cycle of a Mobile Phone
The world has moved into the technological age and mobile phones have made a firm establishment in that era. The decision to undertake this project was inspired by the question of where things end up after being disposed. With more than six billion people in the world today, there is more waste production than ever before. The next step in the project was the research of the background methodology for the project. This included various types of information which proved to be a challenge in its own way.
Why carry out LCA of a Mobile Phone:
According to a report posted by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, it was found out that mobile phones handsets are the dominant cause of environmental problem in the whole mobile communication system. From an environmental perspective, the production and use of the mobile phone account for most of the impacts. In total, they contribute to approximately 90% of the total environmental impacts. This mainly due to the fact that the life of a mobile phone is very short, while the infrastructure (e.g. mobile phone base stations) used lasts anywhere from 4 to 10 times longer. This paper stresses repeatedly that the production of the mobile phone itself already contributes to almost half of the total environmental impacts posed by a mobile phone system. This is mainly from the production of the electronic chips found in a mobile phone.
The Life Cycle of a Mobile Phone
The world has moved into the technological age and mobile phones have made a firm establishment in that era. The decision to undertake this project was inspired by the question of where things end up after being disposed. With more than six billion people in the world today, there is more waste production than ever before. The next step in the project was the research of the background methodology for the project. This included various types of information which proved to be a challenge in its own way.
According to a report posted by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, it was found out that mobile phones handsets are the dominant cause of environmental problem in the whole mobile communication system. From an environmental perspective, the production and use of the mobile phone account for most of the impacts. In total, they contribute to approximately 90% of the total environmental impacts. This mainly due to the fact that the life of a mobile phone is very short, while the infrastructure (e.g. mobile phone base stations) used lasts anywhere from 4 to 10 times longer. This paper stresses repeatedly that the production of the mobile phone itself already contributes to almost half of the total environmental impacts posed by a mobile phone system. This is mainly from the production of the electronic chips found in a mobile phone.
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