Assessing the Environmental Footprint of Smartphone Manufacturing and Waste Disposal

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6463-872-1_23How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Sustainability; Smart Phones; Waste Management; recycling; awareness

Abstract

Smartphones have proliferated in recent years, altering worldwide communication, entertainment, and information access. But the quick spread of these gadgets has sparked worries about how they will affect the environment during every stage of their existence, from production to disposal. The purpose of this paper is to examine the sustainability issues surrounding the manufacture and disposal of smartphones, highlighting the effects on the environment and looking into possible remedies. Pollution and habitat degradation result from the extraction of raw materials, which frequently occurs in environmentally delicate locations. Climate change is further exacerbated by the manufacturing phase, which uses enormous quantities of energy and releases greenhouse gases. These effects are exacerbated by the supply chain’s complexity, which makes it difficult to ensure sustainable behavior at various supplier tiers. Additionally, the quick replacement of smartphone models leads to the production of electrical waste that contains dangerous substances like lead and mercury. The environment and human health are at risk from improper disposal, which makes e-waste management techniques essential. Transparency and compliance continue to be difficult issues in spite of company sustainability programs and regulatory actions. However, rising consumer awareness is pushing industry innovation and sustainability initiatives by creating a demand for greener goods and methods. Comprehending the all-encompassing influence of cellphones across their entire life cycle is imperative in formulating all-encompassing tactics to alleviate ecological damage and encourage a more sustainable methodology towards production and disposal. The study contains useful information regarding the ecological consequence of manufacturing and discarding smartphones. However, its shortcomings elucidate the necessity of further work, like data inadequacies, spatial heterogeneity, and the absence of a sociological perspective that integrates the social and economic dimensions.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Akshat Agarwal
AU  - Garima Agarwal
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/11/04
TI  - Assessing the Environmental Footprint of Smartphone Manufacturing and Waste Disposal
BT  - Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Sustainable Business Practices and Innovative Models (ICSBPIM-2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 332
EP  - 361
SN  - 2352-5428
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-872-1_23
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-872-1_23
ID  - Agarwal2025
ER  -