Every year, smartphones become more powerful with smarter chips, higher screen resolution and better cameras. At the same time, features arbitrarily deemed outdated are stripped out; high end smartphones no longer have removable battery or headphone jack, and are now shipped without a charger. These decisions are not just a nuisance to consumers but have real environmental impact.
During their October 2020 keynote, Apple announced that the iPhone 12’s retail box would not include a power adapter in order to reduce carbon emissions and meet their net zero climate impact goal. The argument is that users can use their existing power adapter for their upgraded smartphone, thus reducing mining and electronic waste. In addition, the smaller and lighter iPhone box reduces carbon emissions from transportation.
The decision to exclude power adapters from the iPhone box is not as eco-friendly as presented on stage and most likely stems from a profit motive. Apple tells users to use their existing chargers; however, the power adapter (with power output of 5 watts) that comes with the iPhone 11 does not fast-charge the iPhone 12 which requires 20 watts for fast-charging. In addition, the cable (lightning to USB-C) provided with the iPhone 12 is incompatible with the standard iPhone 11 power adapter (USB 3 port). This means that in order to take advantage of the full charging speed of their new iPhone, users have to buy a power adapter, separately! Well, this does not sound very environmentally friendly.
Other major smartphone manufacturers, including Samsung, jumped on the bandwagon of no-charger-in-the-box, all in the name of saving the environment. On his channel MrWhoseTheBoss, English YouTuber Arun shows the staggering amount of packaging that he received when ordering a smartphone and power adapter separately. If phone manufacturers really cared about reducing waste, they would allow consumers to willingly include or exclude the power adapter.
Written by Kelly Jean, Class of 2022