Social characteristics of consumption, disposal and environmental awareness in Brazil regarding smartphones

Abstract

Some items become so intrinsic in our day to day lives that no one ever thinks about their residual impact. Smartphones are a good example of that. Every year, billions of devices are sold globally and, assuming that everything that is bought one day will be discarded, the heavy metals that smartphones are made of can cause great environmental contamination. Aiming to find out what happens with the smartphones that are not used in Brazil anymore, and seeking to understand how concepts like life cycle assessment and reverse logistics apply to this context, a survey with 27 questions was conducted, and more than 500 answers were collected. Among other findings, the life cycle of devices in Brazil was of only 1.4 years and, one of the reasons for their replacement was the need for a new smartphone when the old one crashed, agreeing with other papers; however, what set these results apart was the wish to have a new device being the most pointed motive for replacement.