CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 28Recycling and Waste Management TechniquesSustainable Supply Chain ManagementTransportation Systems and Infrastructure

Life Extension of Electronic Products: A Case Study of Smartphones

Open access
Hazelwood, Dylan A., Pecht, Michael G.·2021·IEEE Access
DOI 10.1109/access.2021.3121733
Open this paper in CoChat — free accountOpen PDF

Abstract

Smartphones account for a large and growing portion of global electronic waste, and the life extension of electronic systems—particularly by refurbishment—is a viable solution for reducing this waste stream. In some secondary markets, sales of refurbished smartphones have begun to outpace sales of new smartphones. However, there are concerns over the resulting reliability and, in some cases, the safety of such products. This paper explores the environmental, reliability, and safety impact of extending the life of electronic systems, with a focus on smartphones. We find that smartphones undergo varying levels of refurbishment that consumers are often not aware of, the environmental advantages of refurbished devices are often outweighed by the disadvantages, and that refurbished electronics will never be as reliable as new products. It is thus necessary to create standards for smartphone refurbishment and to capture and analyze lifetime environmental and usage data to enable the assessment and prediction of the reliability of refurbished devices and their components.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1109/access.2021.3121733

Cites

1 of 1 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • The Fairphone 5 overcomes common linear product challenges, making it an ideal case for evaluating CBM potential while minimising hypothetical assumptions.

    “As the Fairphone 5 overcomes common linear product challenges, it serves as an ideal case for evaluating CBM potential while minimising hypothetical assumptions that could skew results (Hazelwood and Pecht 2021;Jugend et al. 2024).”

    From Integrating Life Cycle Assessment, Monetised Externalities and Value Alignment for Strategic Reconfiguration of Circular Business Models: The Case of Smartphones (2026) · cites this paper as Hazelwood and Pecht 2021

    Section VIII (Consumer Protection; page unavailable) describes the Fairphone as designed for repairability and upgradability, supporting the idea that it addresses some common smartphone-design challenges. It does not identify the Fairphone 5 or say that it is an ideal case for evaluating CBM potential or minimising hypothetical assumptions. (LLM, conf=0.86)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 39

  1. J. Kirchherr, D. Reike, and M. Hekkert, ''Conceptualizing the circular economy: An analysis of 114 definitions,'' Resour., Conservation Recy- cling, vol. 127, pp. 221-232, Dec. 2017.
  2. N. Zarbakhshnia, Y. Wu, K. Govindan, and H. Soleimani, ''A novel hybrid multiple attribute decision-making approach for outsourcing sustainable reverse logistics,'' J. Cleaner Prod., vol. 242, Jan. 2020, Art. no. 118461.
  3. M. Pecht, R. Kaczmarek, X. Song, D. Hazelwood, R. Kavetsky and D. Anand, Rare Earth Materials: Insights and Concerns. College Park, MD, USA: CALCE EPSC Press, 2012.
  4. Q. Yu, R. Xiong, C. Li, and M. G. Pecht, ''Water-resistant smartphone technologies,'' IEEE Access, vol. 7, pp. 42757-42773, 2019.
  5. R. Mugge, B. Jockin, and N. Bocken, ''How to sell refurbished smartphones? An investigation of different customer groups and appropriate incentives,'' J. Cleaner Prod., vol. 147, pp. 284-296, Mar. 2017.
  6. J. Gaur, M. Amini, and A. K. Rao, ''Closed-loop supply chain config- uration for new and reconditioned products: An integrated optimization model,'' Omega, vol. 66, pp. 212-223, Jan. 2017.
  7. Y. Wang, Z. Jiang, X. Hu, and C. Li, ''Optimization of reconditioning scheme for remanufacturing of used parts based on failure characteris- tics,'' Robot. Comput.-Integr. Manuf., vol. 61, Feb. 2020, Art. no. 101833.
  8. H. Griese, H. Poetter, K. Schischke, O. Ness, and H. Reichl, ''Reuse and lifetime extension strategies in the context of technology innovations, global markets, and environmental legislation,'' in Proc. IEEE Int. Symp. Electron. Environ. Conf. Rec., May 2004, pp. 173-178.
  9. D. Hazelwood, M. Pecht, M. Sanchez and D. Anand, The True Cost of Waste: Current Issues in Electronic Waste. College Park, MD, USA: CALCE EPSC Press, 2018.
  10. D. Reike, W. J. V. Vermeulen, and S. Witjes, ''The circular economy: New or refurbished as CE 3.0?-Exploring controversies in the conceptual- ization of the circular economy through a focus on history and resource value retention options,'' Resour., Conservation Recycling, vol. 135, pp. 246-264, Aug. 2018.
  11. S. Turki, C. Sauvey, and N. Rezg, ''Modelling and optimization of a manufacturing/remanufacturing system with storage facility under carbon cap and trade policy,'' J. Cleaner Prod., vol. 193, pp. 441-458, Aug. 2018.
  12. B. Niu and F. Xie, ''Incentive alignment of brand-owner and remanufac- turer towards quality certification to refurbished products,'' J. Cleaner Prod., vol. 242, Jan. 2020, Art. no. 118314.
  13. R. T. Lund and W. M. Hauser, ''Remanufacturing-An American per- spective,'' in Proc. 5th Int. Conf. Responsive Manuf. Green Manuf. (ICRM), 2010, pp. 1-6, doi: 10.1049/cp.2010.0404. · DOI
  14. Samsung. Samsung Certified Pre-Owned Smartphones. Accessed: Sep. 17, 2019. [Online]. Available: https://www.samsung.com/ us/explore/certified-pre-owned-phones/s/Review/
  15. M. Tost, B. Bayer, M. Hitch, S. Lutter, P. Moser, and S. Feiel, ''Metal mining's environmental pressures: A review and updated estimates on CO 2 emissions, water use, and land requirements,'' Sustainability, vol. 10, pp. 1-14, Aug. 2018.
  16. G. Saevarsdottir, H. Kvande, and B. J. Welch, ''Aluminum production in the times of climate change: The global challenge to reduce the carbon footprint and prevent carbon leakage,'' JOM, vol. 72, no. 1, pp. 296-308, Jan. 2020.
  17. P. Usapein and C. Tongcumpou, ''Greenhouse gas emission in jewelry industry: A case study of silver flat ring,'' Appl. Environ. Res., vol. 38, no. 1, pp. 11-17, 2016.
  18. P. Koltun and A. Tharumarajah, ''Life cycle impact of rare Earth ele- ments,'' ISRN Metall., vol. 2014, pp. 1-10, May 2014.
  19. M. J. Eckelman, L. Ciacci, G. Kavlak, P. Nuss, B. K. Reck, and T. E. Graedel, ''Life cycle carbon benefits of aerospace alloy recycling,'' J. Cleaner Prod., vol. 80, pp. 38-45, Oct. 2014.
  20. R. Jing, M. W. Yasir, J. Qian, and Z. Zhang, ''Assessments of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from stainless steel production in China using two evaluation approaches,'' Environ. Prog. Sustain. Energy, vol. 38, no. 1, pp. 47-55, Jan. 2019.
  21. J. Suckling and J. Lee, ''Redefining scope: The true environmental impact of smartphones?'' Int. J. Life Cycle Assessment, vol. 20, no. 8, pp. 1181-1196, Aug. 2015.
  22. Standard for Sustainability for Mobile Phones, Standard 110, Edition 2, UL Environment, Underwriters Laboratories, Northbrook, IL, USA, 2017.
  23. European Parliament and The Council of The European Union, ''Direc- tive 1999/44/EC of the European parliament and of the council of 25 May 1999 on certain aspects of the sale of consumer goods and associated guarantees,'' Off. J., vol. L171, pp. 12-16, Jul. 1999.
  24. N. Williard, C. Hendricks, B. Sood, J. Chung, and M. Pecht, ''Evalua- tion of batteries for safe air transport,'' Energies, vol. 9, no. 5, p. 340, May 2016.
  25. S. Saxena, L. Kong, and M. G. Pecht, ''Exploding E-cigarettes: A battery safety issue,'' IEEE Access, vol. 6, pp. 21442-21466, 2018.
  26. I. R. Dadour, I. Almanjahie, N. D. Fowkes, G. Keady, and K. Vijayan, ''Temperature variations in a parked vehicle,'' Forensic Sci. Int., vol. 207, nos. 1-3, pp. 205-211, Apr. 2011.
  27. S. Kang, H. Choi, S. Park, C. Park, J. Lee, U. Lee, and S.-J. Lee, ''Fire in your hands: Understanding thermal behavior of smartphones,'' in Proc. 25th Annu. Int. Conf. Mobile Comput. Netw., Aug. 2019, pp. 1-16.
  28. T. Zink and R. Geyer, ''Circular economy rebound,'' J. Ind. Ecol., vol. 21, no. 3, pp. 593-602, Jun. 2017.
  29. Y. Sun, L. Kong, H. A. Khan, and M. G. Pecht, ''Li-ion battery reliability-A case study of the apple iPhone,'' IEEE Access, vol. 7, pp. 71131-71141, 2019.
  30. C. Clemm, C. Sinai, C. Ferkinghoff, N. Dethlefs, N. F. Nissen, and K.-D. Lang, ''Durability and cycle frequency of smartphone and tablet lithium-ion batteries in the field,'' in Proc. Electron. Goes Green + (EGG), Sep. 2016, pp. 1-7.
  31. M. Cordella, F. Alfieri, C. Clemm, and A. Berwald, ''Durability of smartphones: A technical analysis of reliability and repairability aspects,'' J. Cleaner Prod., vol. 286, Mar. 2021, Art. no. 125388.
  32. J. Lee, Y. Park, and S. K. Chung, ''Multifunctional liquid lens for variable focus and aperture,'' Sens. Actuators A, Phys., vol. 287, no. 1, pp. 177-184, 2019.
  33. Z.-J. Zhang, M.-B. Zhou, T. Sun, X. Wu, and X.-P. Zhang, ''Influ- ences of Ag and Zn contents on interfacial microstructure and corrosion behavior of Sn-Zn-Ag/6061Al joints in antenna module packages,'' in Proc. 20th Int. Conf. Electron. Packag. Technology(ICEPT), Aug. 2019, pp. 1-4.
  34. M. Pecht, R. Radojcic and G. Rao, Guidebook for Managing Silicon Chip Reliability. Boca Raton, FL, USA: CRC Press, 1999.
  35. M. Pecht, E. Bumiller, J. Pecht and D. Douthit, Contamination of Electronic Assemblies. Boca Raton, FL, USA: CRC Press, 2002.
  36. K. Kapur and M. Pecht, Reliability Engineering. Hoboken, NJ, USA: Wiley, 2014.
  37. J. Tang and Z.-G. Yang, ''Root causes analysis on malfunction of PCBA in smartphone,'' in Proc. Int. Conf. Qual., Rel., Risk, Maintenance, Saf. Eng. (QR2MSE), Aug. 2019, pp. 1-6.
  38. MICHAEL G. PECHT (Life Fellow, IEEE) received the B.S. degree in physics, the M.S. degree in electrical engineering, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in engineering mechanics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has served on three U.S. National Academy of Science Studies, two U.S. Congressional Investigations in Automotive Safety, and an expert to the U.S. FDA. He is the Director of Center for Advanced Life Cycle Engineering (CALCE), University of Maryland (UMD), which is funded by over 150 of the world's leading electronics companies at more than U.S.$6M/year. He is also a Professor in applied mathematics at UMD. He has more than 30,000 citations and more than 80
  39. H-index. He is a Professional Engineer, an ASME Fellow, and an ASM Fellow. In 2008, he was awarded the highest reliability honor, the IEEE Reliability Society's Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2010, he received the IEEE Exceptional Technical Achievement Award for his innovations in the area of prognostics and systems health management.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Hazelwood, D. A., & Pecht, M. G.
Affiliations
University of Maryland, College Park (US)
ORCID
Venue
IEEE Access
Publisher
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
Published
2021
Volume
9
Pages
144726-144739
ISSN
2169-3536 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1109/access.2021.3121733
OpenAlex
W3211179487
Cited by
28
References
1
Citations by year
2026: 7 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 2
FWCI
2.12
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • IEEE Access (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Funders
  • Center for Advanced Life Cycle Engineering (CALCE) and the Center for Engineering Concepts Development (CECD), University of Maryland, College Park
  • Centre for Advances in Reliability and Safety under the Innovation and Technology Commission of the Hong Kong SAR Government
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Waste Management and Disposal › Recycling and Waste Management Techniques
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Strategy and Management › Sustainable Supply Chain Management
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Management of Technology and Innovation › Transportation Systems and Infrastructure
Keywords
electronic waste, device reliability, product safety, environmental impact, life data analysis, secondary market

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review