Life cycle assessment of smart phones and cell phones of last generation

Abstract

This project evaluated different levels of environmental impacts of a sample from the latest smart phone and also a sample from the old fashioned 2G phone, throughout their life cycle from cradle to grave using software for Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) named SimaPro 7.33. LCA is an environmental assessment tool standardized by International Standard Organization (ISO) that provides quantitative environmental impact. It concerns about inventory of relevant energy and material inputs and environmental releases, evaluating the potential impacts associated with identified inputs and releases. The LCA modeling and analysis of the cell phones evaluated throughout this project was done using SimaPro. Two phones from different generation were picked to perform an LCA to observe the difference performance during their manufacturing and disposal phase so that interpretation was made to find out how the advancement of technology can help in eco-designing of electronic products. Result shows that there is better performance made by the latest smart phone when compared with the old 2G phone. The evaluation also suggests that there is still design problem of the smart phone which would impede the migration to eco-design. Mobile phone battery is also one of the major contributions of electronic waste which would cause serious environmental impact. The comparison of the Nickel Cadmium and the Lithium battery was also made to illustrate how the battery design improvement has benefited the use of mobile phone and the protection of the environment.