Green Electronics?

At the library we actively promote the use of Smartphones, tablets and eReaders, because many of our library materials are now available in electronic form. We also offer courses on how to use these electronic devices. But I sometimes worry that our dependence on these devices is not doing our planet any good. E-Readers, for example, are touted as being "green" because they save trees, but we know that the manufacturers expect us to replace them every eighteen months.  So how green are they really?

Here is a nice video that sums up the problem of planned obsolescence:

On top of this, we are all increasingly aware that many of the components needed to create these devices, minerals like tungsten, tantalum, and gold, are mined in places like the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where profits from the sale of these minerals are used to finance longstanding regional conflicts.  We also know that many of these devices are manufactured in Third World sweatshops under poor working conditions.  Taken all together, that new Smartphone in your hand is not looking so smart.

But what if we could buy a phone that was repairable and up-gradable, where the manufacturer did his best to ensure that the components were sourced from reliable suppliers and manufactured under safe conditions, and where the employees were paid a fair wage?  Google is promising something of the sort with its much-discussed but still-to-be-released, Ara.

One company in the Netherlands has just released the Fairphone 2.  It looks promising.  The problem is that it is very expensive.  My other concern is this: Will Fairphone sell enough product to guarantee its survival, or would I be buying the cellphone equivalent of the eight-track tape?  I do hope that this is the model of the future and that other companies will follow suit.  Imagine buying a phone that was this simple to repair or upgrade.  It could last for years.

See a review of the Fairphone 2 here.

--Ken Haigh