There are around 700 million unused phones in EU homes.
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There are around 700 million unused phones in EU homes.
That’s nearly two devices for every single person.
By disposing of them properly, we can:
Reuse lithium, cobalt, and rare earth elements Reduce our reliance on imports Increase our resilience against global market disruptions
The EU’s Circular Economy Action Plan wants to make repairable design the norm, as a vital step toward reducing e-waste.@EUCommission i have a netbook with 1 GB of RAM that im finding it much easier to repurpose than a phone with 3 GB of RAM and a much more powerful CPU
being able to remove the battery easily, run directly from the charger without a battery connected, and have an open bootloader so that i can install a modern and lighter operating system on it, while also not relying on whether google decides if my device is allowed to be useful or not because I chose the operating system instead of letting the OEM choose it for me (and then the OEM drops support much sooner than I'd like to keep using the device for) would reduce e-waste much more than disposing of the old phones
sure, i agree disposing of old devices to recycle them is a good way to prevent e-waste and save resources. but being able to keep our devices for much longer than is currently the case would be even more effective at that
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There are around 700 million unused phones in EU homes.
That’s nearly two devices for every single person.
By disposing of them properly, we can:
Reuse lithium, cobalt, and rare earth elements Reduce our reliance on imports Increase our resilience against global market disruptions
The EU’s Circular Economy Action Plan wants to make repairable design the norm, as a vital step toward reducing e-waste.@EUCommission Yes, recycling has a use.
But you brought up repairability, and I believe that needs to be on the software front too for this to happen. Unfortunately capable hardware has been invalidated by companies deprecating them through refusals to release software updates. We need regulations that make demands of a minimum ammount of years of software support, which would normally not be implimented as it's not in their capitalist interest.
I know that this will not reach the people actually making decisions, and I'm kind of dissapointed by other people that think spamming a social media manager with the same things repeatedly would do anything. There are offical ways to make complaints, this is not it.
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There are around 700 million unused phones in EU homes.
That’s nearly two devices for every single person.
By disposing of them properly, we can:
Reuse lithium, cobalt, and rare earth elements Reduce our reliance on imports Increase our resilience against global market disruptions
The EU’s Circular Economy Action Plan wants to make repairable design the norm, as a vital step toward reducing e-waste.@EUCommission
Unused phone means bad hardware then ? Europe kills GSM networks, garbaging lots of working devices, and let big tech companies cheating customers by telling them to change their WORKING phones every 2-3 years.
Got a Nokia 3310 ?
Was European, rock solid, made to call & text using standards.
Today, networks used killed, European company bought by big tech, US Android as the only OS, loaded with GAFAM bloatware, locked stores and RCS as the texting standard.Where's EU?
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There are around 700 million unused phones in EU homes.
That’s nearly two devices for every single person.
By disposing of them properly, we can:
Reuse lithium, cobalt, and rare earth elements Reduce our reliance on imports Increase our resilience against global market disruptions
The EU’s Circular Economy Action Plan wants to make repairable design the norm, as a vital step toward reducing e-waste.Pro Čechy mezi námi … https://remobil.cz/ organizuje sběr starých mobilních telefonů v Česku a mezi jinými možnostmi sběru kterákoli prodejna T-Mobilu by měla být sběrné kontejnery na staré mobily (i pro mobily od jiných providerů).
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@EUCommission Have you considered making that easier? In order to dispose of my ewaste I need to make an appointment (!) at the local recycling center, find someone to drive me there as they hate pedestrians, queue like some kind of indolent buffoon in spite of having an appointment.
@elricofmelnibone This is not the work of the EU, responsibles here are your national governments and local structures.
Here in France, e.g., you have collection bins in nearly every big supermarket. And even for our recycling centers (near the hypermarkets) you don't need an appointment. Friends or neighbours can bring it to the collection.
So, if it's that bad you should contact your local structures!
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There are around 700 million unused phones in EU homes.
That’s nearly two devices for every single person.
By disposing of them properly, we can:
Reuse lithium, cobalt, and rare earth elements Reduce our reliance on imports Increase our resilience against global market disruptions
The EU’s Circular Economy Action Plan wants to make repairable design the norm, as a vital step toward reducing e-waste.@EUCommission Hello everyone I'm new here please
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There are around 700 million unused phones in EU homes.
That’s nearly two devices for every single person.
By disposing of them properly, we can:
Reuse lithium, cobalt, and rare earth elements Reduce our reliance on imports Increase our resilience against global market disruptions
The EU’s Circular Economy Action Plan wants to make repairable design the norm, as a vital step toward reducing e-waste.If the smartphone is fairly recent, consider donating it for refugees:
(There may be similar initiatives in your country)
It is fairly common for #EU countries to follow the racist and xenophobic lead of the @EUCommission and walk the extra mile to make the lives of refugees as miserable as they possibly can. From the article linked above:
»With a phone as their smart companion, people on the run can recognise their current location, communicate with relatives and friends and, in the worst case, also record crimes and offences. This is because officers often commit bodily harm at border crossings or push back fleeing people via illegal pushbacks. Using a smartphone, fugitives can at least record evidence to report border officials at a later date. However, Daniel Looser from “Wir packen’s an” describes it as a “completely normal tactic” for mobile phones to be confiscated along with other items during border controls. Charging sockets are also regularly destroyed, rendering phones unusable a short time later.«
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There are around 700 million unused phones in EU homes.
That’s nearly two devices for every single person.
By disposing of them properly, we can:
Reuse lithium, cobalt, and rare earth elements Reduce our reliance on imports Increase our resilience against global market disruptions
The EU’s Circular Economy Action Plan wants to make repairable design the norm, as a vital step toward reducing e-waste.@EUCommission How about lack of updates forcing people to upgrade phones. Many banking apps now require at least Android 11, my phone is _fine_ but lower than that.
More-over i have an older phone than that yet, which has LineageOS on it, and that is 11.(i.e. it's good for that) You might want to have someone in your family try that.
But really phones need to be technically easier to maintain for the developers. It's just computers, they could be running the same OS-ses...
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There are around 700 million unused phones in EU homes.
That’s nearly two devices for every single person.
By disposing of them properly, we can:
Reuse lithium, cobalt, and rare earth elements Reduce our reliance on imports Increase our resilience against global market disruptions
The EU’s Circular Economy Action Plan wants to make repairable design the norm, as a vital step toward reducing e-waste.@EUCommission That’s a staggering number—turning unused phones into a resource instead of waste just makes sense. Repairability and proper recycling could really reduce dependency and make the whole system more sustainable
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There are around 700 million unused phones in EU homes.
That’s nearly two devices for every single person.
By disposing of them properly, we can:
Reuse lithium, cobalt, and rare earth elements Reduce our reliance on imports Increase our resilience against global market disruptions
The EU’s Circular Economy Action Plan wants to make repairable design the norm, as a vital step toward reducing e-waste.@EUCommission One of the nice things that could "be the norm" is smartphones that can properly function without a battery. Too often when the battery's dead, the device is out. Or if someone wants to use a smartphone that isn't able to phone anymore as a computer for other tasks, then it would need to be plugged in for long periods of times and it's risky with a battery (no matter the so called over charging protections). An easy way to do that could be pretty useful to avoid e-waste.
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There are around 700 million unused phones in EU homes.
That’s nearly two devices for every single person.
By disposing of them properly, we can:
Reuse lithium, cobalt, and rare earth elements Reduce our reliance on imports Increase our resilience against global market disruptions
The EU’s Circular Economy Action Plan wants to make repairable design the norm, as a vital step toward reducing e-waste.@EUCommission Allow unlocking the bootloaders would stimulate clean and safe OS alternatives, longer life for devices and independence from US tech. The EU could enforce it with the impulse of the EC. Stop #enshitification.
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Pro Čechy mezi námi … https://remobil.cz/ organizuje sběr starých mobilních telefonů v Česku a mezi jinými možnostmi sběru kterákoli prodejna T-Mobilu by měla být sběrné kontejnery na staré mobily (i pro mobily od jiných providerů).
@mcepl @EUCommission Tak o tomto slyším poprvé. Díky za to.
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There are around 700 million unused phones in EU homes.
That’s nearly two devices for every single person.
By disposing of them properly, we can:
Reuse lithium, cobalt, and rare earth elements Reduce our reliance on imports Increase our resilience against global market disruptions
The EU’s Circular Economy Action Plan wants to make repairable design the norm, as a vital step toward reducing e-waste.Some older Android phones can accept @GrapheneOS so they can be used again rather tha recycled 🤨
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@EUCommission Se non posso usare le app bancarie sul mio telefono principale, che è senza i servizi Google e Play Integrity, devo per forza avere 2 telefoni. Pensate prima a questo e poi al riciclo.
I believe this only counts phones that aren't used for anything, not second phones and "work" phones.
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There are around 700 million unused phones in EU homes.
That’s nearly two devices for every single person.
By disposing of them properly, we can:
Reuse lithium, cobalt, and rare earth elements Reduce our reliance on imports Increase our resilience against global market disruptions
The EU’s Circular Economy Action Plan wants to make repairable design the norm, as a vital step toward reducing e-waste.@EUCommission
Help promote #fairphone then ! @WeAreFairphone -
Or you could legislate against developing software at a rate thats imposible to use in a sustained form the same device for more than 2-3 years before having to dispose it?
Edit: or at least having some kind of limitation or obligations on device companies to make products that endure at least X years...
@th0maswaschosen @EUCommission they have
Starting from June 20, 2025, smartphones and tablets sold in the European Union must have a minimum of 5 years of software support
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There are around 700 million unused phones in EU homes.
That’s nearly two devices for every single person.
By disposing of them properly, we can:
Reuse lithium, cobalt, and rare earth elements Reduce our reliance on imports Increase our resilience against global market disruptions
The EU’s Circular Economy Action Plan wants to make repairable design the norm, as a vital step toward reducing e-waste.@EUCommission also good to add that
Starting from June 20, 2025, smartphones and tablets sold in the European Union must have a minimum of 5 years of software support
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@th0maswaschosen @EUCommission they have
Starting from June 20, 2025, smartphones and tablets sold in the European Union must have a minimum of 5 years of software support
@RoBo2 @EUCommission 5 years when most people use their phone for at least 4 still makes 2 old devices per capita every decade
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There are around 700 million unused phones in EU homes.
That’s nearly two devices for every single person.
By disposing of them properly, we can:
Reuse lithium, cobalt, and rare earth elements Reduce our reliance on imports Increase our resilience against global market disruptions
The EU’s Circular Economy Action Plan wants to make repairable design the norm, as a vital step toward reducing e-waste.@EUCommission or we can renew and keep using our phones with Free Software!
https://fsfe.org/activities/upcyclingandroid/ #FreeSoftware #UpcyclingAndroid #FOSS -
There are around 700 million unused phones in EU homes.
That’s nearly two devices for every single person.
By disposing of them properly, we can:
Reuse lithium, cobalt, and rare earth elements Reduce our reliance on imports Increase our resilience against global market disruptions
The EU’s Circular Economy Action Plan wants to make repairable design the norm, as a vital step toward reducing e-waste.@EUCommission About fucking time...
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