{"id":97493,"key":"Are_smartphones_environmentally_friendly?","title":"Are smartphones environmentally friendly?","latest":{"id":1187575,"timestamp":"2025-09-18T20:35:11Z"},"content_model":"wikitext","license":{"url":"https://www.appropedia.org/Appropedia:Copyrights","title":"CC-BY-SA-4.0"},"source":"[[File:Wikipedia homepage on a large Android phone, 2015-04-16.jpg|thumb]]\n\nSmartphones are able to tackle a wide variety of tasks that would otherwise be divided into many separate devices, each having its own [[carbon footprint]]. As a consequence, smarthphones have largely replaced or reduced the consumption of:\n\n* Communication devices (land line telephones, beepers, walkie-talkies. etc)\n* Cameras\n* Video recorders\n* Laptop and desktop computers\n* Radios\n* Portable audio players (Walkmans, Discmans, iPods, mp3 players, boomboxes, etc)\n* Landline phones and pagers\n* Flashlights\n* GPS receivers\n* Clocks (wristwatches, alarm clocks, stopwatches, etc)\n* Calculators (including scientific calculators and graphing calculators)\n* Gaming devices (Game Boys, etc)\n* Voice recorders\n* Paper (agendas, calendars, maps, letters, encyclopedias, newspapers, dictionaries, notebooks, documents, address books, tickets, handbooks, etc)\n* Mirrors\n* Metronomes and tuners\n* DVD players\n* Flash drives\n* Remote controls\n* eBook readers\n* Police scanners\n* Cards (credit cards, IDs)\n* Banking devices (ATM)\n* Keys (for cars)\n* Gambling devices (slot machines, etc)\n* Levels\n* Light meters\n* Decibel meter\n* Data acquisition devices\n* Spectral light meters\n* Compass\n* Tape measure and rulers\n* Pedometers\n* Speedometers\n\nNote that the consumption of some of these devices may have actually ''increased'' since the arrival of smartphones, but surely their consumption would be much higher without smartphones.\n\n== External links ==\n\n* Nörmann, N., & Maier-Speredelozzi, V. (2016). Cost and Environmental Impacts in Manufacturing: A Case Study Approach. Procedia Manufacturing, 5, 58–74. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.promfg.2016.08.008\n* CE Delft. (2021, December 3). Carbon footprint of unwanted data-use by smartphones. Branch. https://branch.climateaction.tech/issues/issue-3/carbon-footprint-of-unwanted-data-use-by-smartphones/\n* [[Wikipedia:Jevons paradox]]\n* [https://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/05/softbank-unveils-worlds-first-phone-with-radiation-detection/ Radiation detection] - Check out comments about how to calibrate any phone to do it\n\n{{Page data\n| authors = User:Sophivorus, User:J.M.Pearce\n| description = Smartphones seem convenient—but are they green? Appropedia explores how replacing devices affects your carbon footprint.\n}}"}