By:- Nakul Kumar, Co-Founder & CMO, Cashify
“The environmental impact of a smartphone begins long before it reaches a consumer’s hands; nearly 80% of a smartphone’s carbon footprint is generated during manufacturing, through raw material extraction, component production, assembly, and global logistics. Which means every device that gets reused instead of replaced avoids a significant environmental cost before a new phone is ever produced.
This is why recommerce matters. The phone you already own is the most sustainable phone you can have. The phone someone else already owns is the second most sustainable. Every time a device finds a second life instead of a landfill, we avoid the full environmental cost of manufacturing a new one.
A single refurbished smartphone can save up to 85 kg of CO₂ emissions, equivalent to driving nearly 500 kilometres in a petrol car. It can prevent the extraction of approximately 243 kg of raw materials and conserve nearly 13,000 litres of water otherwise consumed in manufacturing a new device.
That’s the logic of recommerce, and at the scale India operates, it is one of the most consequential climate actions we can take as a country.”