Participating in the second-hand device market is a great way to save money, but it's also the smart way to help save the environment. When you buy a used phone or sell your old one, you are being a responsible consumer. By reducing new consumption and reusing old devices, we can minimize the amount of damage we do to our environment and help make the world a better place.
How much better you ask?Coltan are contains a heat-resistant substance vital to the capacitors in every smartphone. Up to 80% of the world's coltan reserves lie in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In less than two years of bloody warfare, the Rwandan army made of $250 million stealing coltan from the DR Congo. Tin is the main component of every one of the 7000+ solder points on your tablet. Over one-third of the tin mined in the world comes from Indonesia, where workers die every week in illegal mining operations.
Manufacturing our smartphones takes a heavy toll as well. In 2007, 18 workers attempted suicide at a Foxconn plant—Apple's notorious Chinese manufacturing partner. 43.2% of China's state-monitored rivers are classified as unsuitable for human contact while recycling centers like Guiyu experience 6x higher miscarriage rates, 7/10 children with high blood-lead levels and the highest level of cancer-causing dioxins in the world.
By using Movaluate to repurpose an old device and by liking this page, you are doing your part as a global citizen to reduce our reliance on dangerous labor practices and promote awareness of these human rights issues.
The average phone has 0.034g of gold, 0.35g of silver, 16g of copper and 0.015g of palladium. We take these amounts and multiply them by the real-time prices in the precious metals market.
Each mobile device contains average amount of .259g of lead and if polluted with water, that amount is enough to contaminate over astonishing 4500 gallons of water.
Repurposing your phone not only saves natural resources, but it also reduces energy waste. Recycling one million cell phones saves enough energy to power 185 U.S. household for a whole year.
Now if we take these 3 figures—4593 gallons, $4.77, 97.3 minutes—and multiply them by the 130 million cell phones tossed aside annually in the United states, we get:
All of our little phones can make a big difference. Let's work together to help reduce, reuse, and recycle.
