How circular business models can be used to tackle electronic waste and CO2 emissions
Electronic waste is a growing global concern, with Statista estimating that it will increase from 53.6 million metric tons in 2019 to 75 million metric tons by 2030. Manufacturing new devices requires the extraction and processing of raw materials, which is energy-intensive, environmentally damaging and generates the most CO2 emissions. Last year, more than 1.3 billion smartphones were sold and although the Swedish Environmental Research Institute (IVL) has concluded that manufacturing a new smartphone generates, on average, 86 kilograms of waste, each phone’s life expectancy is just 2.7