The way to change course is to turn the line into a circle – meaning the “linear economy” has to become a “circular economy.” In a circular economy, products are designed and manufactured with a view to recyclability. The materials they contain can easily be separated from one another for recycling purposes. And products are used as long as possible. They are shared, repaired, refurbished, and reused. When they can no longer be used, they are recycled, and the raw materials they contain are recovered for use in new products. That way, they never land in landfills.
Already during the development of products, care must be taken to ensure that they are durable and easy to repair. Wherever possible, renewable materials should be used. All materials should also be installed in such a way that they can be easily recycled later.
The data center in Biere near Magdeburg was planned in such a way that it can be completely rebuilt and the materials reused.
We should handle products in such a way that they last as long as possible, because the longer we use them, the less they have to be produced anew. Our smartphone, for example, lasts much longer with a protective cover. And we can extend the life of the battery if we don't constantly charge it, but keep it between 40 and 80 percent charged. You can find the battery status in the battery settings of your smartphone.
The cell phone cases from our partner agood from Sweden are made of purely plant-based materials. And if you don't need the cover anymore, send it back to agood. agood turns the old cover into raw materials for a new one.
In remanufacturing, experts ensure that your product is repaired and restored to good condition so that it can be resold.
Old cell phones can also be sold to Telekom in Germany. These devices are checked, repaired if possible and renewed devices are resold at an attractive price. Of course, we ensure that all data on the phones are deleted.
The camera works, but you hardly use it? You don't like the winter jacket from last year anymore? Since the internet has connected us all into one huge flea market, platforms like vinted, ebay or nebenan.de are booming - no matter where in the world, your used pieces will find new happy buyers.
Many things do not have to be purchased, but can also be rented. In some countries, for example, you can rent a router or media receiver from Telekom. If it is returned, we ensure that it is refurbished and returned to the cycle.
If products break, you don't have to buy a new one right away. Many things can be repaired. This is more environmentally friendly than buying a new product and is easier on the wallet. Your repair order also helps to maintain jobs in your region.
Display broken? Battery in the bucket? No problem if you have a Fairphone - because you can easily replace many parts yourself, without having to have the entire device repaired at great expense or even having to dispose of it. That saves valuable resources.
In the circular economy, ownership is becoming a discontinued model, at least for things that are easy to share. On average, we use a drill for only twelve to fifteen minutes in its product life. Thanks to the Internet, we can borrow drills, ladders and the like from our neighbors via nebenan.de or similar platforms. This is particularly good for the environment, because every drill that is not built saves resources.
We use a drill for just 12-15 minutes on average in its product life.
Unfortunately, even the best-cared-for product will break down at some point. Then we should give it for recycling so that the raw materials it contains can be reused.
The housing of the Speedport Smart consists of at least 90 percent recycled plastic. The packaging is not only completely plastic-free and compostable, but also uses 30 percent less cardboard material.
At some point, old smartphones reach the end of the line – and simply have to be replaced. But what phone is most sustainable? We invite consumers who are pondering this question to consult our Eco Rating which we developed in 2021 in cooperation with other mobile-services providers. We developed it because we want to offer consumers reliable information about the sustainability of smartphones. The Eco Rating takes five important sustainability aspects into account: durability, reparability, recyclability, carbon footprint and resource-efficiency. It rates smartphones on a point scale with a 100-point maximum. The higher the score, the more sustainable the device is. Eco Rating is now offered in 36 countries. To date, more than 300 devices have already been rated.
Standard recycling processes can recover metals such as gold, copper, palladium, platinum, silver and – in many cases – nickel from electronic devices. This is good news, because these metals account for over 85 percent of the entire metal value found in electronic devices. In addition, special recycling plants are able to recover additional metals, such as zinc, lead, tin and traces of other metals. There are currently three such plants in operation in Europe. Smartphones and tablets also contain the metals indium and tantalum and “rare earth” elements. At present, recycling of these materials is not yet feasible, because the quantities involved per device are too small, and because the materials are too widely distributed throughout devices. Cobalt and nickel can be recovered from lithium-ion batteries, and much research is currently being carried out for the purpose of improving the relevant recycling processes.
The back casing of the phone consists of particularly robust plastics.
Besides graphite, plastics and silicon, the battery also contains various lithium compounds as well as stannic oxide, nickel, manganese, cobalt and further raw materials.
The casing itself is made from plastics, the battery contacts and the charging plug that is also found here consist of precious metal alloys.
Inside the plastic connectors there are electrical contcats containing precious metals like gold, silver and platine.
The circuit board contains precious silver, zinc, gold, platine, lead and tin, as well as copper, glass and ceramics, but also plastic materials like PPS, epoxy resin and ABS-PC.
The plate is mostly made from plastics; it has metal contacts on the backside that close a circuit on the board when a key is pressed.
This plate consists of plastics and shields the electronic parts behind it.
The screws are made from iron and often have an additional zinc coating.
Aside from the formative plastics, the speaker also contains copper. Additionally, there is a permanent magnet made from ferrite or an alloy of aluminium, nickel and cobalt.
The phone's display is made from plastics and a plethora of precious metals.
The keyboard is made out of plastics.
The front cover consists of particularly robust plastics.
Cell phones and tablet computers should never be discarded along with normal household waste! An important reason for this – apart from recycling issues – is that it is not a trivial task to permanently delete all of the data (photos, messages...) found on electronic devices. In fact, one should really entrust that task to experts. The website for our cell-phone collection center lists the locations at which Deutsche Telekom accepts used cell phones for secure recycling. All of the devices collected at such sites are properly and securely recycled, in an environmentally responsible manner, in Deutsche Telekom’s Recycling Center. We reliably delete all data on returned cell phones, to ensure that no one can use their data for any harmful purposes.
In 2022, we launched the “Good Cause Initiative” in Europe. For every device that our customers and employees return, we donate money to a good cause. In Greece, for example: There, our OTE national company is supporting ENALEIA, an organization that collects and removes waste – including plastic waste – from the waters and beaches of the Greek islands Corfu, Cephalonia, Skiathos and Crete.
metric tons – that’s how much copper cable we pulled out of the ground in Germany alone in 2022. Before there was any such thing as fiber-optic cables, telephone lines consisted mostly of copper cables. As part of our fiber-optic build-out, we are replacing them. Certified waste disposal facilities process the cables in accordance with environmental standards, and up to 90 percent of the material is then recycled.
The circular economy is a great idea for saving valuable resources. But do you know what is even better? Not using the resources in the first place! How do we do that? For example, by no longer printing out and mailing our telephone bills by default; now, we make them available online. By 2025, we intend to eliminate paper from our offices to the fullest extent possible. Along with online billing, the best strategies for doing this include communicating online with our customers.
Cloud computing is yet another good way of saving resources. With cloud computing, our customers no longer need servers and storage media of their own. And cloud computing with us is more efficient, in terms of resources and energy consumption, than companies’ own non-cloud infrastructures. This is because capacity utilization at our data centers is highly efficient, reducing energy consumption by up to 80 percent – and also reducing hardware requirements
SDG12: Conserving ResourcesWith our resource-conserving measures, we are contributing to the 12th Sustainable Development Goal of the United Nations.
