Let’s try and calculate it-for an I-phone -Starting right from scratch i.e., making of the mobile phone that includes selection of materials, making a prototype, testing phase, software installation, mass production of mobile phones, packaging followed by shipmen but what goes inside the mobile phone?
The mobile phone contains few individual parts namely an antenna, LCD, keyboard, microphone, speaker, battery and most important circuit board. Hearing all this sounds very fancy but there is also a darker side to this. To find the material required for the parts the mobile phone companies involve a malpractice of child labor at various mines, one of them being the cobalt mines in Congo and only give the labourers subsistence wages for their work. The material required for the phone is sourced from all over the world. After the use of phone for a certain year the phone is recycled to a certain extent. The companies sent the metal part to the Melter melts the metals; precious metals are recovered while the other metals are burnt which led to carbon emission. So, the mobile phone actually costs a lot apart from its price