Bought used. Money saved.
Three tonnes of gold are worth roughly EUR 180 million. The same amount of this metal is present in the 210 million old phones lying around in German households. This is the conclusion of a 2022 study from the Bitkom digital association, which found that we are still hoarding around 49 million laptops and 26 million tablets here in Germany – a total of 300 million used devices.
An unmitigated disaster in terms of sustainability. “A lot of raw materials, energy and resources go into making a smartphone. The longer the device is used, Bought used. Money saved. the more positive the effect on its ecological footprint”, emphasises Bitkom CEO Dr Bernhard Rohleder. “We Germans are sitting on a mountain of raw materials. As we continue to hear about problems in global supply chains, this makes it even more important that we make use of the raw materials available to us in our own homes.”
Sustainable shopping
Interzero is looking to encourage more people to purchase a refurbished device instead of a new model. This is the idea behind the Gebrauchte- Technik.de online shop, which offers a range of inexpensive phones, laptops, PCs and tablets that have all been professionally refurbished and tested. Many of these devices are only one or two years old.
Purchasing used devices makes financial sense and is good for the planet: a refurbished smartphone saves 14 kg of resources and 58 kg of greenhouse gases compared with the purchase of a new device.
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