The iPhone You Throw Away Every Two Years

We’ve been trained, almost hypnotized, to believe that our iPhones (and other smartphones) need replacing every two years. A shinier camera, a slightly faster processor, a new color… and suddenly, the phone in your pocket feels “old.” The marketing works so well that most of us never stop to ask: What’s the real cost of this upgrade?

The price tag says $1,000, maybe $1,200 for the latest model. Painful, but not impossible. But that’s only the visible cost. The invisible costs, the ones no ad campaign will ever mention, are staggering.

First, the materials. Your iPhone contains over 30 different elements, including rare earth metals like neodymium, dysprosium, and praseodymium. These don’t just appear out of thin air, they’re mined from the earth, often in countries where labor conditions are dangerous and wages are exploitative. Cobalt, crucial for batteries, is often mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where even children work in hazardous pits. Every two-year replacement means more extraction, more destruction, more suffering.

Then there’s the manufacturing process. Building a single iPhone requires the coordination of factories, transport ships, and massive energy consumption. Foxconn, the primary manufacturer, runs facilities so intense that they’ve been compared to industrial cities complete with dormitories, food courts, and relentless production lines. The carbon footprint of making just one new iPhone is roughly 79 kg of CO₂ equivalent. Multiply that by the hundreds of millions of devices sold each year, and you get a number so huge it stops feeling real.

And what about the “old” iPhones we discard? Best case: they get refurbished or recycled, though recycling can only recover a small fraction of the original materials. Worst case: they end up in electronic waste dumps in places like Ghana or India, where toxic metals leach into the soil and water. The lifespan of these chemicals is measured in centuries, not years.

Here’s the thing: if the real cost of each iPhone - the environmental destruction, the human toll, the waste -  were included in the price tag, we’d never dream of replacing them every two years. A “true cost” iPhone might be $5,000 or even $10,000. Suddenly, you’d treat it like a family heirloom instead of a fashion accessory.

The irony? Any iPhone or smartphone can last far longer than two years. Don´t believe me? I´ve had phones last me easily for 6 years. I got a new one because companies stop sending your type of phone updates. Many people are happily using devices that are four, five, even six years old. Battery replacements and repairs are cheaper and far more sustainable than full upgrades. But the cycle continues, because it’s profitable - for Apple, for carriers, and for the massive global machine that thrives on endless consumption.

Next time you feel that upgrade itch, pause. Imagine that your phone came with a label showing not just the megapixels and storage size, but the number of hours a child spent mining cobalt for its battery, the gallons of water used in its production, the kilograms of toxic waste created. Would you still toss your “old” phone in a drawer? Or would you hold onto it, care for it, and resist the pull of the two-year cycle?

Because here’s the truth: your phone isn’t “old.” The system is.

Thanks for reading. Abrazos.

Diego Rojas