Resource Efficiency in the ICT Sector Silver 2 RESOURCE EFFICIENCY IN THE ICT SECTOR Resource Efficiency in the ICT Sector Final Report, November 2016 Authors: Andreas Manhart; Markus Blepp; Corinna Fischer; Kathrin Graulich; Siddharth Prakash; Rasmus Priess; Tobias Schleicher; Maria Tür Oeko-Institut e.V., Head Office Freiburg: P.O. Box 17 71, 79017 Freiburg, Germany; Street address: Merzhauser Strasse 173, 79100 Freiburg, Germany www.oeko.de Imprint Greenpeace e. V., Hongkongstraße 10, 20457 Hamburg, Tel. +49 (0) 40 / 3 06 18-0, [email protected], www.greenpeace.de Contact Marienstraße 19 – 20, 10117 Berlin, Tel. +49 (0) 30 / 30 88 99 - 0 V. i.S.d.P. Manfred Santen Design Henning Thomas / Grennpeace Grafik, Hamburg Production Ute Zimmermann 11/ 2016 Resource efficiency in the ICT sector Table of Contents List of Figures 6 List of Tables 7 List of Abbreviations 8 1. Background and introduction 9 2. Market trends 10 3. Material requirements of ICT gadgets 11 3.1. Environmental impacts and risks 14 3.1.1. Cobalt 14 3.1.2. Palladium 15 3.1.3. Tantalum 16 3.1.4. Silver 16 3.2. Social issues & human rights 17 3.2.1. Cobalt 17 3.2.2. Palladium 18 3.2.3. Tantalum 18 3.2.4. Silver 19 3.3. Material-uses in other sectors 19 3.3.1. Cobalt 19 3.3.2. Palladium 20 3.3.3. Tantalum 20 3.3.4. Silver 20 4. Life-cycle global warming potential of ICT gadgets 21 4.1. From cradle to grave: Greenhouse gas emissions of tablets & smartphones 21 4.2. The big chunks – the most energy-intensive production processes 28 4.3. Smartphones and tablets – How do their impacts relate to those of other products? 32 5. Obsolescence: Life-time matters 34 5.1. Trends in life span and usage times of tablets and smartphones 34 5.2. Causes for obsolescence 36 5.2.1. Material obsolescence 37 5.2.2. Functional obsolescence 37 5.2.3. Economic obsolescence 38 3 Resource efficiency in the ICT sector 5.2.4. Psychological obsolescence vis-à-vis Business-model driven obsolescence 38 6. Recycling – status and challenges 40 6.1. Collection 41 6.2. Pre-processing 43 6.3. End-processing 44 6.4. Exports of used and end-of-life EEE 45 7. Existing improvement strategies 47 7.1. The legislative landscape 47 7.1.1. EU RoHS Directive 47 7.1.2. EU WEEE Directive 49 7.1.3. EU Battery Directive 50 7.1.4. EU REACH Regulation 51 7.1.5. EU Ecodesign Directive and product specific Regulations 52 7.1.6. Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) initiative of the European Commission 56 7.1.7. Conflict mineral regulations 56 7.2. Voluntary initiatives 58 7.2.1. Responsible sourcing of raw materials 58 7.2.2. Best-environmental management options in manufacturing 60 7.2.3. Addressing labour and human rights issues in manufacturing and assembly 62 7.2.4. Approaches to extend product life-time 64 7.2.4.1. Robust and repair-friendly product design 64 7.2.4.2. Repair services 65 7.2.4.3. Take-back and refurbishment / re-use services 65 7.2.4.4. Device-independent contract packages 66 7.2.5. Initiatives on sound end-of-life management and recycling 66 7.2.6. Fairphone 67 7.2.7. Voluntary Ecolabels for tablets and smartphones 67 8. Summary & recommendations 69 9. Literature 73 10. Appendix: Ecolabel criteria 81 10.1. Ecolabel criteria on responsible sourcing of raw materials 81 10.2. Ecolabel criteria on socially responsible manufacturing 81 10.2.1. Blue Angel 81 10.2.2. TCO 81 4 Resource efficiency in the ICT sector 10.2.3. EU Ecolabel 82 10.3. Ecolabel criteria on prolonging product lifetime 83 10.3.1. Design for Durability 83 10.3.2. Design for upgrades and repair 84 10.3.3. Warranty / guarantee 84 10.3.4. Availability of spare parts 85 10.4. Ecolabel criteria on end of Life management 85 10.4.1. Take back schemes 85 10.4.2. Design for recycling 85 5 Resource efficiency in the ICT sector List of Figures Figure 3-1: Country shares of primary cobalt production in 2014 14 Figure 3-2: Country shares of primary palladium production in 2014 15 Figure 3-3: Country shares of primary tantalum production in 2014 16 Figure 3-4: Country shares of primary silver production in 2014 17 Figure 3-5: Applications of cobalt 19 Figure 3-6: Applications of palladium 20 Figure 3-7: Applications of silver 21 Figure 4-1: Life-cycle-based greenhouse gas emissions (kg CO2e) of various smartphone models 24 Figure 4-2: Percentage distribution of life-cycle-based greenhouse gas emissions of smartphone models (%) 25 Figure 4-3: Life-cycle-based greenhouse gas emissions of tablet models (CO2e) 26 Figure 4-4: Percentage distribution of life-cycle-based greenhouse gas emissions of tablet models (%) 27 Figure 4-5: Share of components in the greenhouse gas emissions (kg CO2e) of the production of a tablet 29 Figure 4-6: Share of components in the greenhouse gas emissions (kg CO2e) of the production of a smartphone 29 Figure 4-7: Share of components in the greenhouse gas emissions (kg CO2e) of the production of a notebook 30 Figure 4-8: Comparison of annual greenhouse gas emissions (kg CO2e / year) of various products 33 Figure 5-1: Life span of tablet PCs is increasing 35 Figure 5-2: Usage times of mobile phones (years) 36 Figure 5-3: The indicated price of a device does not correlate with total contract costs 39 Figure 6-1: Generic recycling chain for end-of-life EEE 40 Figure 6-2: Collection rate for WEEE in the EU in 2012 41 Figure 6-3: E-waste collection in a German municipality 43 Figure 7-1: Process for creating Ecodesign Implementing Measures 53 Figure 7-2: The variety of common charging interfaces for mobile phones 55 6 Resource efficiency in the ICT sector List of Tables Table 2-1: Shipment volumes and market shares of major smartphone producers 10 Table 2-2: Shipment volumes and market shares of major tablet producers 10 Table 3-1: Indicative material composition of smartphones 11 Table 3-2: Indicative material composition of tablets 12 Table 3-3: Total material requirements of smartphones and tablets in relation to the world primary production of mineral commodities 13 Table 4-1: Average annual consumption of ICT devices in the use-phase (2011) 28 Table 6-1: Overview on major recycling options for smartphones and tablets 45 Table 7-1: Ecolabels relevant for tablet computers and smartphones 68 7 Resource efficiency in the ICT sector List of Abbreviations AMD Acid Mine Drainage ASM Artisanal and Small-scale Mining CFS Conflict Free Smelter Programme CFTI Conflict-Free Tin Initiative CPU Central Processing Unit CRT Cathode ray tube CVD Chemical Vapour Deposition DR Congo Democratic Republic of the Congo ECHA European Chemical Agency EEE Electrical and Electronic Equipment EICC Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition EoL End-of-Life EPR Extended Producer Responsibility FC Fluorinated Compounds GeSI Global e-Sustainability Initiative HDD Dard Disk Drive ICT Information and Communication Technology ITRI International Tin Research Institute iTSCi ITRI Tin Supply Chain Initiative LCA Life Cycle Assessment NGO Non-Government Organisation NiMH Nickel-metal hydride PBB Polybrominated biphenyls PBDE Polybrominated diphenyl ethers PC Personal Computer PCB Printed Circuit Board PFC Perfluorocompounds PGM Platinum Group Metals RAM Random Access Memory REACH Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals REE Rare Earth Elements REO Rare Earth Oxides RoHS Restriction of the use of certain Hazardous Substances SfH Solutions for Hope SMD Surface-mounted Device SVHC Substance of Very High Concern 3Ts Tin, Tantalum, Tungsten 3TGs Tin, Tantalum, Tungsten, Gold USGS United States Geological Survey VOC Volatile Organic Compounds WEEE Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment 8 Resource efficiency in the ICT sector 1. Background and introduction Mobile electronic devices such as smartphones and tablet PCs have become an integral part of our daily lives and are used for virtually all aspects of modern communication and information sharing. While consumers and societies embrace the advantages of these modern information and communication technologies, NGO reports and other surveys reveal devastating environmental and social practices in the mining, manufacturing and disposal of mobile electronic devices. This includes UN-reports of warlords financing their existence with mining and trading of “high-tech minerals”; reports from devastating practices in cobalt-, tin-, gold-, palladium- and rare earth- mining; sub-standard working conditions in manufacturing and assembly and irregular recycling and disposal in third-world countries. In addition to these reports, it is well known that some pro- duction processes, such the microchip manufacture consume huge amounts of energy, water and chemicals. Moreover, electronic devices also contain substances which have adverse impacts on human and environmental health if not properly managed at the end of the product lifetime. In response, various countries have already introduced legislation aimed at reducing the negative environmental and social impacts of electronic devices. In parallel, the industry has also made considerable progress in terms of efficient use of materials, chemicals and the phase-out of substances of concern during the past years. However, many of the issues listed above have not been sufficiently addressed. Against this background, Greenpeace assigned Oeko-Institut to give an overview of all the resource relevant steps of smartphones and tablets. Thus, the study’s aim is to present a compre- hensive analysis of the resource related issues of smartphones and tablets, with relevance for the environment and human rights.