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 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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I believe this only counts phones that aren't used for anything, not second phones and "work" phones.
@Goodlucksil @Ryoma123 @EUCommission
How do you count that?I have an old flip phone somewhere. Been used like a week. I bought it as a backup, when I dropped my old phone. After I got it repaired, I haven't used the backup phone.
I don't know the state of the battery, it is separately wrapped in the original box, so any discharge over time will be internal to the battery.
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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 you should add a link to a list of places where you can give your old phone to.
Recycling it is better than when the city puts 90% of it into a landfill.... -
@EUCommission There's nothing "circular" about it, if we keep on buying more and more of everything year after year. The first rule to be circular is to stop growing. Circles have a constant radius.
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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 you could try banning locked bootloaders, or at the very least make it mandatory to open them once os updates stop
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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've got at least 14, make me an offer
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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 This is great! But you know what would be even better than collecting items we've already paid for, and recycle them to sell them back to us?
- ban planned obsolescence in hardware, software, and accessories
- mandate hardware and software must be cross-brand compatibleRecycling is good, but it more so creates new industry loops with collecting, extracting, reusing, repackaging, rather than effectively reducing the need to buy more on consumer or industry level
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@casdeiro @EUCommission i have never interacted with a degrowther. every time i see it, i raise my (ignorant) eyebrows. since i see progress partially linked with growth. what for you personally is so attractive about the whole degrowth movement?
@casperd @casdeiro @EUCommission the material possibility of living on this planet.
Please do some readings to understand the depth of the current situation.
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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 so many replies airing grievances and none has asked what the percentages in the infographic refer to!?

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