Appendix
Appendix 1 : Ecoinvent processes
Table A1 List of ecoinvent 3.10 processes used in the GHG reduction quantification model
Device type | Ecoinvent activity |
---|---|
consumer electronics production, mobile device, smartphone | consumer electronics, mobile device, smartphone | Cutoff, U, GLO | |
Tablet* | consumer electronics production, mobile device, tablet | consumer electronics, mobile device, tablet | Cutoff, U, GLO |
PC** | computer production, desktop, without screen | computer, desktop, without screen | Cutoff, U, GLO |
Laptop* | computer production, laptop | computer, laptop | Cutoff, U, GLO |
Screen | display production, liquid crystal, 17 inches | display, liquid crystal, 17 inches | Cutoff, U, GLO |
Transport, truck | market for transport, freight, lorry 7.5-16 metric ton, EURO5 | transport, freight, lorry 7.5-16 metric ton, EURO5 | Cutoff, U, RER |
Transport, air | market for transport, freight, aircraft, long haul | transport, freight, aircraft, long haul | Cutoff, U, GLO |
Smartphone recycling | treatment of used smartphone, mechanical treatment | used smartphone | Cutoff, U, GLO |
Tablet recycling | treatment of used tablet, mechanical treatment | used tablet | Cutoff, U, GLO |
PC recycling | treatment of used desktop computer, mechanical treatment | used desktop computer | Cutoff, U, GLO |
Laptop recycling | treatment of used laptop computer, mechanical treatment | used laptop computer | Cutoff, U, GLO |
Screen recycling | treatment of used liquid crystal display, mechanical treatment | used liquid crystal display | Cutoff, U, GLO |
Light refurbishing*** |
|
Full refurbishing |
|
E-waste incineration |
|
E-waste landfill |
|
*removed the power adapter production and waste treatment, and the device waste treatment
**removed the device waste treatment
***amount of each input varies by device type, and values were taken from the ADEME study (see the Light refurbishing section)
Appendix 2: Emission factors of Apple devices
Table A2 Mass and GHG emissions from production for iPhones gathered from Apple Product Environmental Reports, for a selection of recent models.
Year | Model | Memory (GB) | Mass (kg) | EF (kgCO2e) | Production (%) | EF production (kgCO2e) | Source |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2022 | 14 | 128 | 0.172 | 61 | 79% | 48 | |
2022 | 14 | 256 | 0.172 | 67 | 79% | 53 | |
2022 | 14 | 512 | 0.172 | 83 | 79% | 66 | |
2022 | 14 plus | 128 | 0.203 | 68 | 78% | 53 | |
2022 | 14 plus | 256 | 0.203 | 75 | 78% | 59 | |
2022 | 14 plus | 512 | 0.203 | 91 | 78% | 71 | |
2022 | 14 pro | 128 | 0.206 | 65 | 81% | 53 | |
2022 | 14 pro | 256 | 0.206 | 71 | 81% | 58 | |
2022 | 14 pro | 512 | 0.206 | 84 | 81% | 68 | |
2022 | 14 pro | 1TB | 0.206 | 116 | 81% | 94 | |
2022 | 14 pro max | 128 | 0.240 | 73 | 79% | 58 | |
2022 | 14 pro max | 256 | 0.240 | 80 | 79% | 63 | |
2022 | 14 pro max | 512 | 0.240 | 93 | 79% | 73 | |
2022 | 14 pro max | 1TB | 0.240 | 124 | 79% | 98 | |
2023 | 15 | 128 | 0.171 | 56 | 80% | 45 | |
2023 | 15 | 256 | 0.171 | 61 | 80% | 49 | |
2023 | 15 | 512 | 0.171 | 74 | 80% | 59 | |
2023 | 15 plus | 128 | 0.201 | 61 | 79% | 48 | |
2023 | 15 plus | 256 | 0.201 | 66 | 79% | 52 | |
2023 | 15 plus | 512 | 0.201 | 79 | 79% | 62 | |
2023 | 15 pro | 128 | 0.187 | 66 | 83% | 55 | |
2023 | 15 pro | 256 | 0.187 | 71 | 83% | 59 | |
2023 | 15 pro | 512 | 0.187 | 83 | 83% | 69 | |
2023 | 15 pro | 1TB | 0.187 | 107 | 83% | 89 | |
2023 | 15 pro max | 256 | 0.221 | 75 | 83% | 62 | |
2023 | 15 pro max | 512 | 0.221 | 87 | 83% | 72 | |
2023 | 15 pro max | 1TB | 0.221 | 110 | 83% | 9 |
Mean | 64 |
Median | 59 |
Standard Deviation | 14.6 |
Coefficient of variation (Standard Deviation/Mean) (%) | 22.8% |
Table A3 Mass and GHG emissions from production for iPads gathered from Apple Product Environmental Reports, for a selection of recent models
Year | Model | Memory (GB) | Mass (kg) | EF (kgCO2e) | Production (%) | EF production (kgCO2e) | Source |
2021 | 9th gen. | 64 | 0.487 | 75 | 78% | 59 | |
2021 | 9th gen. | 128 | 0.487 | 78 | 78% | 61 | |
2021 | 9th gen. | 256 | 0.487 | 84 | 78% | 66 | |
2022 | 10th gen. | 64 | 0.477 | 72 | 78% | 56 | |
2022 | 10th gen. | 256 | 0.477 | 82 | 78% | 64 | |
2023 | no iPad launched* |
Mean | 61 |
Median | 61 |
Standard Deviation | 3.8 |
Coefficient of variation (Standard Deviation/Mean) (%) | 6.29% |
*2021 is also considered in the average iPad emissions to have a bigger sample
Table A4 Mass and GHG emissions from production for MacBooks gathered from Apple Product Environmental Reports, for a selection of recent models
Year | Model | Memory (GB) | Mass (kg) | EF (kgCO2e) | Production (%) | EF production (kgCO2e) | Source |
2022 | MacBook Air M2 chip | 256 | 1.24 | 147 | 69% | 101 | |
2022 | MacBook Air M2 chip | 512 | 1.24 | 171 | 69% | 118 | |
2022 | 13-inch MacBook Pro | 256 | 1.4 | 167 | 71% | 119 | |
2022 | 13-inch MacBook Pro | 512 | 1.4 | 182 | 71% | 129 | |
2023 | 16-inch MacBook Pro | M3 Pro 512GB | 2.15 | 290 | 67% | 194 | |
16-inch MacBook Pro | M3 Max 1TB | 2.16 | 348 | 72% | 251 | ||
14-inch MacBook Pro | M2 Pro 512GB | 1.6 | 243 | 79% | 192 | ||
14-inch MacBook Pro | M2 Pro 1T | 1.6 | 272 | 79% | 215 | ||
14-inch MacBook Pro | M2 Max 1TB | 1.63 | 301 | 79% | 238 | ||
MacBook Air 15-inch M2 chip | 256 | 1.51 | 139 | 73% | 101 | ||
MacBook Air 15-inch M2 chip | 512 | 1.51 | 152 | 73% | 111 |
Mean | 161 |
Median | 129 |
Standard Deviation | 57.6 |
Coefficient of variation (Standard Deviation/Mean) (%) | 35.8% |
Table A5 Mass and GHG emissions from production for iMacs gathered from Apple Product Environmental Reports, for a selection of recent models
Year | Model | Memory (GB) | Mass (kg) | EF (kgCO2e) | Production (%) | EF production (kgCO2e) | Source |
2021 | iMac (24 inches) | M1 7-core GPU 256GB | 4.47 | 481 | 45% | 216 | |
2021 | iMac (24 inches) | M1 8-core GPU 256GB | 4.47 | 486 | 45% | 219 | |
2021 | iMac (24 inches) | M1 8-core GPU 512GB | 4.47 | 511 | 45% | 230 | |
2022 | no iMac launched | ||||||
2023 | iMac (two ports) | 256 | 4.43 | 359 | 52% | 187 | |
2023 | iMac (four ports) | 512 | 4.48 | 389 | 52% | 202 |
Mean | 211 |
Median | 216 |
Standard Deviation | 16.7 |
Coefficient of variation (Standard Deviation/Mean) (%) | 7.92% |
Appendix 3: Refurbishing Impact Ratio
Table A6 The Refurbishing Impact Ratio is calculated by dividing the Results refurbished device column by the Results new device column. This fraction is then applied to the emission factors for new device impacts used in this study to obtain the emissions from the refurbishing process (Table 3).
Device type | Results new device (kgCO2eq) | Results refurbished device (kgCO2eq) | Refurbishing Impact Ratio | Source |
Smartphone | 84 | 7 | 8% | |
Tablet | 74 | 9 | 12% | |
Laptop | 168 | 18 | 11% | |
PC | 256 | 26 | 10% | |
Screen | 212 | 22 | 10% |
The following equation is used to solve , which represents the rate of full refurbishment activities modeled per device type i. This reflects the “amount” of refurbishment used as an input for that device. This is used in Equation 9 and Equation 18. Its values for each device type are presented in Table A7.
where,
Emissions\ refurbished_i\ (kgCO_2 eq)\represents the GHG emissions due to the full refurbishing of a device type i. These values have been calculated using secondary data and are summarized in Table 3.
represents the emission factor of the full refurbishing process, which is composed of a mix of replacement parts and cleaning supplies, and is detailed in Appendix 1.
Table A7 The amount of full refurbishment activity input to each device type to obtain the desired emission factor for refurbished devices, as presented in Table 3. Calculated by dividing the desired emission factor for refurbished devices by the emission factor for one full refurbishment activity. The full refurbishment activity is described in Appendix 1.
Device type | Rate of full refurbishment |
Smartphone | 0.77 |
Tablet | 1.92 |
Laptop | 3.47 |
Screen | 6.94 |
PC | 3.61 |
Macbook | 3.29 |
iPhone | 1.00 |
iMac | 4.00 |
iPad | 1.35 |
Appendix 4: WEEE statistics
Table A8 The national WEEE waste treatment rates are summarized. Sources are indicated in the column names. Percent of all small IT e-waste that is recycled/reused (column 3) was calculated by multiplying the Percent small IT e-waste separately collected (column 1) by Percent of separately collected small IT e-waste that is recycled/reused (column 2). Percent of all small IT e-waste in municipal waste stream (column 4) was calculated by subtracting Percent of all small IT e-waste that is recycled/reused (column 3) from 100%. Note that when percentages were >100, they were automatically set to 100.
Country | ||||
Europe average | 72% | 79% | 56% | 44% |
Belgium | 100% | 80% | 80% | 20% |
Bulgaria | 79% | 85% | 68% | 32% |
Czechia | 57% | 100% | 57% | 43% |
Denmark | 38% | 83% | 32% | 68% |
Germany | 89% | 85% | 75% | 25% |
Estonia | 74% | 84% | 62% | 38% |
Ireland | 59% | 86% | 50% | 50% |
Greece | 49% | 60% | 29% | 71% |
Spain | 62% | 68% | 42% | 58% |
France | 91% | 73% | 67% | 33% |
Croatia | 60% | 88% | 52% | 48% |
Italy | 44% | 62% | 27% | 73% |
Cyprus | 75% | 91% | 68% | 32% |
Latvia | 54% | 77% | 41% | 59% |
Lithuania | 80% | 77% | 61% | 39% |
Luxembourg | 64% | 87% | 56% | 44% |
Hungary | 53% | 77% | 41% | 59% |
Malta | No data | |||
Netherlands | 77% | 72% | 55% | 45% |
Austria | 96% | 75% | 73% | 27% |
Poland | No data | |||
Portugal | 82% | 22% | 18% | 82% |
Romania | No data | |||
Slovenia | 100% | 90% | 90% | 10% |
Slovakia | 91% | 92% | 84% | 16% |
Finland | 63% | 95% | 59% | 41% |
Sweden | 53% | 84% | 45% | 55% |
Iceland | No data | |||
Liechtenstein | No data | |||
Norway | 100% | 77% | 77% | 23% |
NA | NA | 23% | 77% | |
NA | NA | 82% | 18% | |
NA | NA | 25% | 75% |
Appendix 5: Ecoinvent activity smartphone changes
Smartphones are the most frequently refurbished device type, so avoided emission calculations are particularly sensitive to their emission factor
Many , and do not represent the expected emissions of replaced/avoided devices on the market today. , which is based on data from the Fairphone 1 released in 2014.
A comparison of detailed life cycle inventories was the preferred approach, but was not possible due to a lack of transparent data on smartphone composition. Notably, the amounts of the most impactful smartphone components (mainboard, printed wiring boards, and integrated circuits) could not be found to adjust inputs to the ecoinvent process.
Instead, smartphone manufacturing emission factors were summarized for the (released 2022-2024) , and had publicly available LCAs.
For Apple iPhones (devices with most sales globally), the identified values are presented in Table A2, with an average of 64±15 kg CO2eq/device. Emission factors for other smartphones are summarized in the table below, and show an average emission factor of 49±13 kg CO2eq/device. These values shall be used for the emission factors for iPhones and other smartphones, respectively.
These values are around 25-50% greater than the smartphone production emission factor from ecoinvent 3.10.
To implement this change in the model, the amount of key inputs (mainboard, printed wiring boards, and integrated circuits) in the ecoinvent smartphone process was increased to reach the desired final emission factor.
Additionally, exchanges for the charger production, smartphone waste treatment, and cable waste treatment were removed from the process, to align with the project system boundaries.
Table A9 The non-Apple GHG emissions from manufacturing of smartphones gathered from manufacturer environmental reports, for a selection of recent and popular smartphone models. EF stands for emission factor.
Year | Model | EF (kgCO2e) | % manufacturing | EF manufacturing (kgCO2e) | Source | |
2023 | Galaxy | A14 | 42.5 | 78% | 33.20 | |
2023 | Galaxy | A54 | 49.2 | 69% | 33.90 | |
2023 | Galaxy | S23 FE | 47.5 | 79% | 37.50 | |
2023 | Galaxy | S23 | 53 | 85% | 45.00 | |
2023 | Galaxy | S23+ | 58.8 | 84% | 49.22 | |
2023 | Galaxy | S23 Ultra | 70.6 | 85% | 60.22 | |
2024 | Galaxy | S24 Ultra | 66.4 | 86% | 56.90 | |
2024 | Galaxy | S24+ | 54.8 | 85% | 46.47 | |
2024 | Galaxy | S24 | 50.3 | 84% | 42.25 | |
2022 | Huawei | Mate 50 Pro | 81 | 88% | 71.33 | |
2022 | Huawei | Mate 50 | 75.3 | 88% | 65.95 |
Appendix 6: Market share of new and used devices
The market share of new and used devices sold annually in Europe was used to determine the repartition of avoided new and refurbished devices in the baseline scenario. Most data were available for smartphones, taken from survey responses from 2022, and are presented in Table A10. The average values used for the GHG reduction quantification are a market share of 13% for refurbished smartphones, and 87% for new smartphones, as shown in Table 5.
Table A10 Breakdown of refurbished and new smartphones sold in European countries in 2022.
Country | Percent Refurbished | Percent new | Source |
France | 19% | 81% | |
UK | 16% | 84% | |
Austria | 15% | 85% | |
Germany | 15% | 85% | |
Scandanavia | 12% | 88% | |
The Netherlands | 11% | 89% | |
Poland | 10% | 90% | |
Belgium | 9% | 91% | |
Italy | 7% | 93% | |
Average | 13% | 87% |
Similar detailed data were not available for other device types. Survey responses on the interest in buying a given refurbished device type were used to adjust the smartphone data in Table A10 proportionally to other device types (Table A11). The results from PCs were applied to laptops, and the results for TVs were used as a proxy for screens.
Table A11 Survey results asking respondents if they would be interested in buying the device type refurbished are summarized. The ratio of the results for smartphones compared to other device types was used to proportionally adjust the average percentage of refurbished smartphones gathered in Table A10.
Device type | Percent Refurbished | Percent new | |
Smartphone | 59% | 13% | 87% |
PC | 35% | 8% | 92% |
Tablet | 34% | 7% | 93% |
TV | 28% | 6% | 94% |
Appendix 7: Residual value calculations
The devices considered were the and and . New prices were taken from the manufacturer’s website where available, or from the manufacturer’s store on Amazon. In both cases, French sources were used. Average buyback prices were shared with Riverse by Project Developers. Prices reflect annual buyback price for that device category, for devices from Europe, in 2023.
Table A12 Sample prices for a new Apple iPhone.
Model | New Price (€) |
iPhone 14, 128 GB | €869 |
iPhone 14, 256 GB | €999 |
iPhone 14, 512 GB | €1,249 |
iPhone 14 plus, 128 GB | €969 |
iPhone 14 plus, 256 GB | €1,099 |
iPhone 14 plus, 512 GB | €1,349 |
iPhone 14 pro, 128 GB | €1,102 |
iPhone 14 pro, 256 GB | €1,235 |
iPhone 14 pro, 512 GB | €1,490 |
iPhone 14 pro, 1TB GB | €1,721 |
iPhone 14 pro max, 128 GB | €1,249 |
iPhone 14 pro max, 256 GB | €1,399 |
iPhone 14 pro max, 512 GB | €1,599 |
iPhone 14 pro max, 1TB GB | €1,699 |
iPhone 15, 128 GB | €969 |
iPhone 15, 256 GB | €1,099 |
iPhone 15, 512 GB | €1,349 |
iPhone 15 plus, 128 GB | €1,119 |
iPhone 15 plus, 256 GB | €1,249 |
iPhone 15 plus, 512 GB | €1,499 |
iPhone 15 pro, 128 GB | €1,229 |
iPhone 15 pro, 256 GB | €1,359 |
iPhone 15 pro, 512 GB | €1,609 |
iPhone 15 pro, 1TB GB | €1,859 |
iPhone 15 pro max, 256 GB | €1,479 |
iPhone 15 pro max, 512 GB | €1,729 |
iPhone 15 pro max, 1TB GB | €1,979 |
iPhone summary | |
Average new | €1,354 |
Average buyback | €186 |
Residual value | 13.7% |
Table A13 Sample prices for a new Samsung smartphone.
Model | New Price (€) |
Samsung Galaxy A14 4G, 64 GB | €132 |
Samsung Galaxy A14 4G, 128 GB | €128 |
Samsung Galaxy A14 5G, 64 GB | €176 |
Samsung Galaxy A14 5G, 128 GB | €256 |
Samsung Galaxy A34, 128 GB | €237 |
Samsung Galaxy A34, 256 GB | €286 |
Samsung Galaxy A54 5G, 128 GB | €309 |
Samsung Galaxy A54 5G, 256 GB | €410 |
Samsung Galaxy S23 FE, 128 GB | €699 |
Samsung Galaxy S23 FE, 256 GB | €759 |
Samsung Galaxy S23, 128 GB | €799 |
Samsung Galaxy S23, 256 GB | €859 |
Samsung Galaxy S23+, 256 GB | €919 |
Samsung Galaxy S23+, 512 GB | €993 |
Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, 256 GB | €969 |
Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, 512 GB | €1,039 |
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, 256 GB | €1,469 |
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, 512 GB | €1,589 |
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, 1 TB | €1,829 |
Samsung Galaxy S24, 128 GB | €899 |
Samsung Galaxy S24, 256 GB | €959 |
Samsung Galaxy S24+, 256 GB | €1,169 |
Samsung Galaxy S24+, 512 GB | €1,289 |
Smartphone summary | |
Average new | €790 |
Average buyback | €89 |
Residual value | 11.3% |
Table A14 Sample prices for a new Apple iPad.
Model | New Price (€) |
iPad Pro 11 inch, 128 GB | €1,069 |
iPad Pro 11 inch, 256 GB | €1,199 |
iPad Pro 11 inch, 512 GB | €1,449 |
iPad Pro 11 inch, 1 TB | €1,949 |
iPad Pro 11 inch, 2 TB | €2,449 |
iPad Pro 12.9 inch, 128 GB | €1,469 |
iPad Pro 12.9 inch, 256 GB | €1,599 |
iPad Pro 12.9 inch, 512 GB | €1,849 |
iPad Pro 12.9 inch, 1 TB | €2,349 |
iPad Pro 12.9 inch, 2 TB | €2,849 |
iPad Air, 64 GB | €789 |
iPad Air, 256 GB | €989 |
iPad 10th gen, 64 GB | €589 |
iPad 10th gen, 256 GB | €789 |
iPad 9th gen, 64 GB | €439 |
iPad 9th gen, 256 GB | €639 |
iPad mini, 64 GB | €659 |
iPad mini, 256 GB | €859 |
iPad Pro 11 inch 5G, 128 GB | €1,269 |
iPad Pro 11 inch 5G, 256 GB | €1,399 |
iPad Pro 11 inch 5G, 512 GB | €1,649 |
iPad Pro 11 inch 5G, 1 TB | €2,149 |
iPad Pro 11 inch 5G, 2 TB | €2,649 |
iPad Pro 12.9 inch 5G, 128 GB | €1,669 |
iPad Pro 12.9 inch 5G, 256 GB | €1,799 |
iPad Pro 12.9 inch 5G, 512 GB | €2,049 |
iPad Pro 12.9 inch 5G, 1 TB | €2,544 |
iPad Pro 12.9 inch 5G, 2 TB | €3,044 |
iPad Air 5G, 64 GB | €989 |
iPad Air 5G, 256 GB | €1,189 |
iPad 10th gen 5G, 64 GB | €789 |
iPad 10th gen 5G, 256 GB | €989 |
iPad 9th gen 5G, 64 GB | €609 |
iPad 9th gen 5G, 256 GB | €809 |
iPad mini 5G, 64 GB | €859 |
iPad mini 5G, 256 GB | €1,059 |
iPad summary | |
Average new | €1,430 |
Average buyback | €170 |
Residual value | 11.9% |
Table A15 Sample prices for a new Samsung tablet.
Model | New Price (€) |
Galaxy Tab S9, 128 GB | 899 |
Galaxy Tab S9, 256 GB | 949 |
Galaxy Tab S9+, 256 GB | 1149 |
Galaxy Tab S9+, 512GB | 1149 |
Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra, 256 GB | 1249 |
Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra, 512 GB | 1499 |
Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra, 1 TB | 1749 |
Galaxy Tab S9 FE, 128 GB | 529 |
Galaxy Tab S9 FE, 256 GB | 599 |
Galaxy Tab S9 FE+, 128 GB | 699 |
Galaxy Tab S9 FE+, 256 GB | 799 |
Galaxy Tab A9, 64 GB | 189 |
Galaxy Tab A9, 128 GB | 219 |
Galaxy Tab A9+, 64 GB | 259 |
Galaxy Tab A9+, 128 GB | 299 |
Galaxy Tab S9 5G, 128 GB | 1099 |
Galaxy Tab S9 5G, 256 GB | 1079 |
Galaxy Tab S9+ 5G, 256 GB | 1329 |
Galaxy Tab S9+ 5G, 512GB | 1449 |
Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra 5G, 256 GB | 1579 |
Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra 5G, 1 TB | 1899 |
Galaxy Tab S9 FE 5G, 128 GB | 629 |
Galaxy Tab S9 FE 5G, 256 GB | 599 |
Galaxy Tab S9 FE+ 5G, 128 GB | 799 |
Galaxy Tab S9 FE+ 5G, 256 GB | 899 |
Galaxy Tab A9 4G, 64 GB | 217 |
Galaxy Tab A9+ 5G, 64 GB | 309 |
Galaxy Tab A9+ 5G, 128 GB | 349 |
Tablet summary | |
Average new | €944 |
Average buyback | €185 |
Residual value | 19.6% |
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