This bachelor thesis aims to decide the ecological footprint of a smartphone and examine the ways the production of asmartphone can be improved. This is done by examining the ecological and the social aspects that are related to theproduction of smartphones. We focused on the production of metals, because metals represent a major part of asmartphones environmental impact. Ten metals were chosen based on earlier studies regarding smartphonesenvironmental impact. These metals were aluminium, lead, gold, cobalt, copper, lithium, nickel, palladium, silver andrare earth metals. To be able to evaluate the metals, a Multiple-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) was done. Sevenrelevant aspects were chosen: i) problem at production ii) health risk iii) Job opportunities iv) recycling v) CO2emission vi) use of land vii) use of water. For these aspects each metal was assigned a grade representing how criticalthe metal is regarding the specific aspect. The results show that land use and health risks when spillage in environmentare the aspects where the metals have the highest negative impact. Further, several metals were critical when it comesto environmental impact. For instance, cobalt mining involves bad working conditions, gold production contributes totoxic spillage in the environment and lithium requires large quantities of water. Opportunities of improvement thathave been identified is to further focus on recycling, improve the transparency regarding the manufacturing of asmartphone, as well as implementing life cycle assessment in the design of smartphones.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:liu-157745 |
| Date | January 2019 |
| Creators | Olerud, Jon, Gullström, Niklas, Wesslander, Niklas, Åstrand, Robin, Söderqvist, Victoria |
| Publisher | Linköpings universitet, Institutionen för fysik, kemi och biologi, Linköpings universitet, Institutionen för fysik, kemi och biologi, Linköpings universitet, Institutionen för fysik, kemi och biologi, Linköpings universitet, Institutionen för fysik, kemi och biologi |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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