The Circular Tech Economy: Why Reuse Is the Future of Smartphones

Smartphones have become an essential for every individual, including children, years ago. We have reached a point where people can miss out on important appointments, get lost, or lose jobs if they don’t have their smartphones. As a result, every single year, millions of new smartphones are being manufactured to be used only for a few months or 1-2 years at best before they are discarded for newer, shinier ones with more advanced features and capabilities.

While this movement has contributed to the rapid growth of the tech market, it has also created one of the world’s fastest-growing waste streams. Technology and smartphones ARE a necessity, that’s a fact, but we also need a way that enables us to utilise technology without contributing to the massive environmental harm that manufacturing new devices inflicts on the planet.

Introducing the concept of the Circular Economy into the tech arena is the answer to this dilemma. Before you start thinking “used smartphones and computers”, it’s not the same thing. In this article, we’ll explore what the Circular Economy in tech looks like, why reusing materials and devices matters now more than ever, and what benefits you, the consumer, get out of the whole deal.

Understanding the Circular Tech Economy

As a broad concept, the Circular Economy is a model for production and consumption that aims to extend the life of resources by repairing, reusing, refurbishing, and leasing existing materials that have already been mined/used for products. In that sense, the Circular Tech Economy aims to eliminate e-waste and promote sustainability by reusing the materials that were already mined and extracted to manufacture existing devices through repair and refurbishment processes.

Refurbished smartphones play a huge role in the Circular Tech Economy, as they are one of the first methods to apply this model.

In a linear economy, resources would be mined, used in production, products sold, discarded, thrown in landfills, other products manufactured using more resources, and so on. While it is called “linear”, it creates a vicious cycle where the Earth’s non-renewable resources are being consumed and returned to it in the form of, for lack of a better word, toxic garbage!

Circular Tech Economy, on the other hand, creates an alternative, more beneficial loop that helps achieve the UK’s environmental target of reaching Net Zero by 2050.

Why The Concept of “Reuse” Matters Now More Than Ever

Let’s first talk about resources; we have two types: renewable and non-renewable. The renewable resources include sunlight, wind, and water. One way or another, these resources are regenerated naturally by the planet/nature. Non-renewable resources, on the other hand, include natural gas, oil, coal, and metals that we extract from the Earth. Nature does not generate these types of resources; it just has a finite amount stored in it, and it can, and will, run out at some point.

Needless to say that tech products, especially smartphones, exhaust copious amounts of non-renewable resources in the manufacturing process, including but not limited to: gold, silver, platinum, copper, lithium, and aluminium. Additionally, the manufacturing process itself results in 55kg of carbon emissions per a SINGLE unit.

With this environmental cost already spent to create one device, opting for reusing existing phones after they’ve been renewed significantly slows down the cycle of extraction and waste.

The Circular Tech Economy Benefits for the Consumer

The Circular Tech Economy may be beneficial for the environment, but let’s face it, most people care about the immediate benefits that they can see right now. So, does that model benefit you as an individual consumer?

The short answer is yes.

This model creates an entire market that provides low-priced smartphones and other electronics under a rigid set of rules and standards that ensure their quality and performance are not compromised. In simple words, the Circular Tech Economy enables you to get a £1000 iPhone for up to 70% price reduction!

A refurbished smartphone complies with the market standards to meet its condition as stated by the seller. So, for example, an excellent-condition refurbished phone should look and work as good as new, and you’d get over 30-50% price reduction for it!

How Refurbished Phones Fit Into The Circular Economy

Embracing the refurbished market as a part of the Circular Economy opens doors for additional benefits financially and environmentally. Those benefits will have an immediate effect as well as long-lasting effects that will reach generations into the future.

1. Extended device lifecycle: Instead of a smartphone being bought brand-new, used for 1-2 years, then thrown in landfills, the device gets a new life and continues to provide value for new users as a fully functioning phone for several more years.
2. Reduced E-waste: The refurbished phone you buy has reduced the number of devices that end up as toxic waste polluting the soil, air, and water, harming the lives of everyone around the radius of the landfills where e-waste is disposed of.
3. Resource preservation: When demand lowers on new smartphones as a result of opting for refurbished smartphones, the demand for mining and exhausting natural non-renewable resources in the manufacturing process will subsequently become lower. As a result, we get to save those resources for future generations.
4. Consumer empowerment: With refurbished tech, users and consumers get the option to buy high-end tech and flagship phones at mid-range, affordable prices. This way, consumers are not limited by budget restrictions in their tech purchases.

Now that we’ve explored all you need to know in the Circular Tech Economy, the question is: how to participate in it?

Well, QwikFone is a good place to start browsing for refurbished phones and learning what a reliable refurbisher can offer, not just in terms of a certified refurbished device quality, but also in terms of warranty protection and refund guarantees. This is the type of business that practices the principles of the Circular Tech Economy in all aspects.

Conclusion

Beyond the hype of the yearly release of new smartphones, our future as tech consumers and as humans is not constantly replacing old tech with brand-new. Responsible use of tech calls for reuse; to replace old tech devices with existing ones.

The smarter choice when it comes to technology is the refurbished market, both financially and environmentally. That’s the choice you should make now.

So, before your next smartphone upgrade, think of the amounts of gold, silver, and other precious non-renewable materials a brand-new phone would consume and make the choice to support an environmentally-aware business that offers reliable deals like QwikFone.