Smartphones have become a lifeline in our daily lives. They help with essential activities like making it easy to keep in touch with loved ones and make it easy to engage in fun online activities like playing with online casino codes at True Blue casino Australia if you’re looking for risk-free profits. But, unfortunately, the average smartphone contains 500 different elements, from tin and copper to gold and silver. Yet only a tiny percentage of these elements are recycled for reuse.
It has been reported that over 151 million phones are tossed each year. Even worse, smartphones’ components include toxic materials such as lead and mercury, leaching into soil and water supplies when improperly disposed of. This means that fixing and recycling your old smartphone can actually help prevent the climate crisis.
Landfill sites can contain both lead and mercury, which can contaminate soil and water supplies when exposed to them. This is especially true for low-income families or people in developing countries who cannot afford or do not have access to proper wastewater treatment systems and garbage pickup services. The effects of this contamination could plague these communities for generations if not properly addressed.
The Climate Change Connection
Many people throw out their old smartphone instead of fixing it because they think a new one would have better features. Yet, they do not know that there are many other ways to reduce your carbon footprint besides upgrading to a new smartphone.
For example, did you know that between 30 and 40 percent of all food produced in the United States gets thrown out every year? It means that almost half of the water and energy used for production, as well as half of the labor required under sunny skies, goes down the drain. In addition, all this wasted food decomposes in landfills, emitting greenhouse gases like methane which traps around 80 times more heat than carbon dioxide (the most common greenhouse gas).
This all means that fixing your old smartphone can be a great way to help reduce the climate crisis. So before you think about upgrading your smartphone, remember that fixing it might help save the planet from climate change! When fixing is not an option, you might also want to consider donating it to someone in need. Several not-for-profit organizations can always use extra smartphones to help with educational or emergency needs. Alternatively, you could just give away your old smartphone as a gift to someone special.
Even though recycling and donating your old smartphone seems like a good idea on paper, not everyone has access to proper facilities where they can adequately recycle such items. If that’s the case for you, why not transform and use it as a free-standing security camera?
You can also use it to check the oil in your car or use it as wireless network-attached storage (NAS) device. Or, if you’re feeling altruistic, why not donate it to someone less fortunate than you? At the end of the day, there are many ways that you can prevent climate crisis by fixing or reusing an old smartphone instead of just getting rid of it!
Five Other Things You Can Do to Prevent a Climate Crisis
Preventing climate change requires a global response, and everyone needs to pitch in if we want to see real change. It means adapting your lifestyle to do your part by doing things that don’t contribute to pollution. Now that we have established how fixing an old smartphone can prevent climate crisis, here are five other things you can do:
- Don’t throw away electronics with batteries inside.
- Unplug unused appliances.
- Eat local seasonal food.
- Join a community garden.
- Use public transportation whenever it is possible.
Don’t Throw Away Electronics With Batteries Inside
The lithium-ion and lead-acid batteries found in laptops, phones, and many smaller appliances contain valuable materials such as cobalt and nickel, which can be reused to make new batteries. Yet, these resources get wasted when they get thrown out with the trash. Not throwing away electronics with batteries inside will help reduce mining for raw materials such as copper or gold while also reducing greenhouse gases emitted from landfills.
Unplug Unused Appliances
It is a pretty easy one to implement! Just make a habit of unplugging your toaster or coffee maker when you don’t use it. This simple act can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions by over 25 pounds of CO2 per year. This can be equivalent to burning about 100 pounds of coal! In addition, by unplugging unused appliances, you avoid the use of energy that would otherwise be used to run these appliances 24/7, even when you’re not around.
Eat Local Seasonal Food
Did you know that the average meal travels about 1,500 miles before it reaches your plate? Besides, around 40 percent of all food produced goes wasted every year. Buying local and seasonal food reduces both the amount of fuel required for transportation and helps reduce food wastage, leading to fewer methane emissions from decomposing food in landfills.
Join a Community Garden
If you like to grow your organic produce, just like most people like the grocery but do not have the space or time, why not join a community garden? By doing so, you will help reduce carbon emissions by eliminating the use of petroleum-powered agricultural tools and fertilizers that contribute to greenhouse gases such as nitrous oxide. You can also save money on groceries while helping out local farmers by buying their surplus harvest.
Use Public Transportation Whenever It Is Possible
Public transportation benefits air quality and reduces greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles that are in traffic without moving an inch. Therefore, taking public transit instead of driving or biking to work saves about 2 pounds of CO2 every day! In addition, by walking, bicycling, and using public transit whenever it is possible, you can prevent greenhouse gases from entering our atmosphere and the risk of global warming from continuing at its current pace.
Final Words on Preventing Climate Crisis
Fixing an old smartphone instead of tossing it can help reduce the need to extract precious materials from places such as Indonesia. There are different ways to do it, one of them would be finding some good online manuals that can help you in step by step guide to fix your phone by yourself instead of just throwing it away. You can also prevent greenhouse gases from entering our atmosphere by reducing your carbon footprint with small actions such as unplugging appliances and eating local produce. In addition, you can prevent climate crisis further by joining a community garden to reduce the use of petroleum-powered agricultural tools, consuming less disposable plastics, and using public transportation whenever possible.