this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2023
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Technology

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago (8 children)

I'm not really conviced by fairphone. They claim they have an ethical and ecological supply chain / manufacturing but there is very little on their website to support that claim. The phone is made in China like any other smartphone. The "Fairtrade Gold" label doesn't mean Gold-rank fairtrade materials, it means that only the actual gold that's inside the phone has the fairtrade label. The amount of gold in a phone is ridiculously small and doesn't represent the major part of the phone's emissions footprint. They have another label which name I can't remember but I looked it up and the terms are very vague. After all the electronic components are still electronic components : copper wires made from copper, qualcomm CPU made in the same qualcomm factory, etc. I don't think a label changes that.

All in all I don't think that buying a brand new, 580 € smartphone with subpar performance is a good move if you care about the environment. Buying a used phone sounds like a much better option to me : cheaper, better performance, probably not as serviceable BUT it's already living a second life anyways.

I tried to be enthusiatic but FP looks way too much like a cash grab aimed at people that care about the environment

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Greenwashing is the term for something like this.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Greenwashing refers to ecological sustainability claims. Regarding the manufacturing process, Fairphone primarily claims to be more socially sustainable, not environmentally. Their ecological claims are solely based off of their phones extended software support and easier repairability, which is undeniably given.

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