Help Me Choose: Sustainable Phone Cases
An estimated 1.5 billion phone cases are thrown away each year and the majority of these are made out of plastic. Even cases that appear to be made from from another material, such as leather, will have a plastic inner core.
Thankfully, there are some innovative companies out there producing phone cases from other materials, which have a much lesser environmental impact. We reviewed a range of options and summarised the key information.
Pela Case, Lore and Loam, Wild and A Good Company produce their phone cases from plant based materials, and their cases can be composted. Popiscase has a different approach, instead using discarded fishing nets for their phone cases and scrap aluminium for the (optional) handles. It's surely win win to develop a product where the raw material is the result of ocean clean-up!
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According to the United Nations Environment Programme, more than 99% of plastics today are produced from non-renewable sources such as natural gas, oil and coal. Of all the plastics that have ever been produced, just 9% has been recycled, 12% has been incinerated and the rest – 79% – has ended up in landfills or as pollutants in the environment, both on land and in our seas. Of that 79%, an unknown amount enters the environment as microplastics which go undetected.
Plastic phone cases are a growing part of the plastic pollution crisis, and will potentially grow significantly if nothing changes. Phone cases cases designed for older phones typically won’t fit newer ones, which is one of the contributing factors. So now is the time to reduce your environmental footprint and switch to a more sustainable option.