Understanding the issues
Complexities of consumer electronic devices and the impact on our environment.
SmartGrade™ solutions
Real world solutions to improve devices' life cycle and encourage sustainability.
Average device life cycle
New purchase
Over 3.2 billion smartphones are currently in use worldwide. The average EU citizen has 6 devices.
Repair
On average only 56% of devices are repaired due to high repair costs, increasing their life cycle by two years.
Replace
Over 130 million smartphones are thrown away each year. Most devices are replaced within 2 years.
Raw material extraction
Raw material mining is massively destructive to the environment, due to low yields, high waste and intrusive and scarring mining practices. The average smartphone requires cobalt, arsenic, boron, phosphorus, tin, tungsten, silver, copper, gold, antimony, terbium, indium and silicone to produce. Often raw material are harvested under unsafe conditions, some even funding war and conflict in Africa.
Production manufacturing
Producing smartphones, tablets and laptops incurs significant waste.
An average laptop requires 240 kilograms of fossil fuels, 20 kilograms of chemicals, and 1.3 metric tons of water to produce.
Waste
Over 130 million smartphones are thrown away into landfills each year potentially poisoning our water tables.
- Cadmium: Dangerous if inhaled or ingested. Some cases of inhaling will lead to metal fume fever, which can lead to death.
- Lead: Dangerous to animal and human nervous systems. May lead to brain cancer.
- Beryllium: Hazards include toxic poisoning, tissue corrosion to plants and cause a life threatening disease called Berylliosis.
- Coltan: Causes mass corrosion to land, bringing pollution to lakes and rivers. Can affect human life.
- Mercury: Poisoning can lead to several diseases including Acrodynia, Hunter-Russel syndrome and Minamata disease.
Repair reinvented
Supporting the repair industry with the best selection of high quality spare parts backed by a lifetime warranty is only the first step.
SmartGrade™ supports the repair industry by providing a complete line on sustainably sourced repair parts including new and remanufactured selections.
SmartGrade™ provides advanced third-party repairs for Beyond Economical to Repair (BER) devices including Level 4 logic board repairs, and LCM display glass only repairs.
Completing the circular economy
SmartGrade™ completes our commitment to the circular economy with a complete asset recovery service, refurbishing and remanufacturing components that are typically harvested for raw materials.
LCM Display issues including shadows and burns are corrected, faulty frames and glass are replaced. Rear covers are polished or re-annodized. Cameras issues reworked.
BER device is disassembled. All components including LCM display, rear cover, flex cables are harvested through the SmartGrade™ BuyBack program.
Material extraction
Extraction
Faulty components are smelted for valuable materials such as copper, silver and gold. Smelting process release substantial carbon dioxide and wastes 99% of material.
vs rework
Rework
Faulty components are reworked to be used in new repairs. Rework process has minimal impact on the environment and wastes less than 5% of material.
Good for your business. Great for the environment
We understand that the industry will need an incentive to begin taking steps to address sustainability of electronic waste.