The True Cost of an iPhone

Before you go kicking your current smartphone to the kerb as soon as there’s so much as a whisper about a new Apple release, consider this: your iPhone has had quite a life before it landed in your pretty little hands, and it will continue to have one the moment it leaves them. To give you an idea of what we’re talking about, developer Jen Rhee and her team have come up with a clever interactive graphic that shows you exactly what goes into – and comes out of – our mobile other halves. When you consider that at just one single factory in China 90 iPhones are being produced every minute, it’s no surprise that the environmental and social costs of this modern must-have are a little scary…
Be a responsible consumer and help reduce society’s electronic waste by re-selling or passing your phone onto a friend, learning how to recycle phones properly or, perhaps most powerfully, asking yourself if you really need that upgrade straight away.

You might also like

JOIN OUR MAILING LIST

Brighten up your inbox with our not-too-frequent emails featuring Peppermint-related news, events, competitions and more!

explore

More articles

Author Douglas Adams wrote that a towel is the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can own. But if you’re short on space, we recommend a tea towel, instead! These tiny canvases pack plenty of personality AND dry the dishes to boot.
What are you wearing today? A pair of adventure-worn jeans, a fave mood-boosting shirt… Whatever the item, chances are many people helped make it. This Ethical Clothing Australia Week, we celebrate the skilled human hands behind the clothes we wear.
It’s all creative hands on deck at Museum of Brisbane this spring, with ceramicist Bonnie Hislop and artists Sunday Jemmott and Renee Kire bringing the buzz to two fab Crafty Party events in September and November – on after dark for extra spice!
Where do you find joy when things feel heavy? What makes you feel all warm and fuzzy? The Peppermint team went hunting for unfiltered moments of beauty and gratitude in their everyday, Fujifilm Quicksnap Original camera in hand.
Limber up sewists, the Wattle Tracksuit sewing pattern is here and ready to be sewn into the matching set of your athleisure dreams! *cue star jumps*
Three years is a long time between stitches… But some things are always worth waiting for. Sew&Tell, our annual digital sewing magazine, is back, and isn’t it just our biggest, most inspiring issue yet? You know it! Dive in and get making.

Hang out with us on Instagram