Wise Market Australia has shown what it means to be a socially responsible commercial enterprise. It has set new benchmarks that other corporate entities must follow for corporate responsibility. Here, we outline what Wise Market stands for and its eco-conscious lifestyle tips.
Sustainability and Wise Market Australia
Wise Market Australia realized the importance of sustainable technology and decided to normalize its usage. It adopted refurbished phones and created awareness about them.
Few people realize it, but refurbished mobile phones are a perfect substitute for new phones and offer many benefits to users, not to mention the environmental benefits. Let’s look at some of them below.
Tackling the E-waste Issue
E-waste is defined as piles of discarded electronic gadgets. Smartphones make up most of the e-waste because we all want the latest and most advanced phones. We don’t care if we never use 80% of those latest and advanced features. We must get a new phone every year, sometimes in less than a year.
E-waste has become a major source of pollution. It contains plastic, aluminum, nickel, steel, silver, and many other metals. These slowly decay and contaminate our soil and water. We produce around 50 million tons of e-waste annually, which is huge. Also, it’s worth billions of dollars.
It should not be like this; e-waste is a menace, and we must now eradicate it.
Lower Carbon Footprint
Have you ever considered your smartphone’s carbon footprint? It is measured as 60kgCO2e, equivalent to driving a car for 250 km or flying a plane for 50 km. Phone manufacturing accounts for 85% of this carbon emission, and 1.4 billion phones are produced annually worldwide.
You can imagine the environmental cost of new phones. Compare it to the carbon footprint of a refurbished phone. Refurbished phones like Apple iPhones, Samsung mobiles, Google Pixel, OnePlus, ZTE, and other models reduce 70% of carbon footprint and save sufficient fuel energy. They are ideal for the environment and contribute to a greener atmosphere.
Saving Earth’s Resources
When you opt for a refurbished phone, you save around 243 kg of Earth’s resources that would go into producing a new phone. These resources are finite, and the crazy number of phones we produce annually means they are ruthlessly extracted without regard for environmental degradation.
Mining is harmful to the environment in the medium to long run. Many other resources are used in phones’ production, including electricity, and when they are distributed worldwide, we further burn fuel in their transportation.
Refurbished phones save the Earth’s resources as they do not require virgin materials because they are not produced from scratch. Rather, they are renewed.
Here’s a startling fact: if we do not produce 1.4 billion new phones (that we usually do) and use previous years’ phone generation, we can save 340 megatonnes of precious metals.
Promotion of Recycling
Refurbished phones are pre-owned devices that their owners no longer use. Through refurbishment, they are renewed and provided a new lease of life. Refurbishment is an extensive process that goes beyond mere cleaning.
It involves removing all the phone’s major and minor flaws, replacing faulty components where needed, and giving the phone a facelift. Through this process, we recycle an abandoned product and put it to use.
Saving in Money Terms
Smartphones aren’t getting any cheaper; the new models cost thousands. Why waste so much money on something you will replace in a year? Also, smartphones have a low resale value. Due to the influx of newer models, old models are rare, with some minor exceptions.
On the other hand, refurbished phones cost a fraction of their new counterparts. It allows you to save your precious money and use it elsewhere. Thus, refurbished phones help you save money.
Accessibility to Affordable Technology
Through refurbished phones, everyone can buy a modern, advanced smartphone. Only some people can afford to buy a phone with the latest features because new phones are expensive. But in refurbished formats, they become affordable.
It is impossible to find a phone in refurbished form from the same year it was released. However, even if you buy a year-old refurbished phone, it will have many modern features that you can enjoy.
Let’s face it: How many of us use all our smartphones’ so-called latest and advanced features? Most of us use their essential functions only; for that, even a 2- or 3-year-old phone works fine.
Minimizing CO2 Emissions
Earlier, we discussed the carbon footprint of new phones and compared it to that of refurbished phones. Now, we will discuss Carbon Dioxide emissions from new and refurbished phones. It turns out new phones are culprits here, too.
A new phone emits 85-95% of its CO2 emissions in the first two years. In 3 years, it emits 82.5 kg of CO2. Now imagine the CO2 emissions of 1.2 billion new phones produced yearly. The environmental impact is immense.
It is wiser and more eco-friendly to buy refurbished phones, which emit 7.61 kg of CO2 simultaneously.
Saving Water
Do you know even water is used to produce smartphones? The production of microchips is a highly water-intensive process. A refurbished phone uses 85.2% less water than a new smartphone. It is an enormous saving in water, which is becoming scarce daily.
Conclusion
Through these measures, Wise Market Australia encourages sustainability and recycling and does its part to promote green living. It is high time we realized new smartphones’ adverse effects on the environment. We should all adopt refurbished phones to mitigate the damage done by using new smartphones. Spearheading into the tech future, Wise Market Australia intends to establish a tech landscape that promotes a greener planet while delivering top-quality products to the audience.
