Mobile phone makers pledge action on environmentally harmful tin mining
The world’s largest mobile phone manufacturers are working together to tackle the ecological and social issues around the industry’s use of tin in mobile devices after an investigation by an environment group raised serious concerns about unregulated tin mining in Indonesia.
In July, Nokia, Sony, Blackberry, Motorola and LG all publicly said for the first time that their phones were likely to contain tin sourced from Indonesian mines that environment group Friends of the Earth say is destroying tropical forests, killing coral and wrecking the lives of local communities.
Earlier in the year Samsung and Phillips also publicly said that their devices likely contained tin from Indonesian mines.
Tin is an essential component in all electronic gadgets and around a third of the world’s supply of the metal comes from the Indonesian islands of Bangka and neighboring island Belitung.
An investigation (pdf) by Friends of the Earth into tin mining on the islands revealed as many a one miner per week dies in mine accidents and child labor is common in the unregulated mines. It also found silt from the tin mining was killing coral reefs and other marine life, ruining the livelihood of local fishermen. Farmers were no better off as the tin mining lead to forest destruction that made the soil too acidic to support crops.
In March 2013, Apple and Philips helped set up The Bangka Tin Working Group with Dutch government agency the Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH) and the Electronics Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC).
The joint industry group, since joined by other major brands including Samsung and LG, has been set up to work with suppliers and governments to improve conditions for the environment and local communities near Indonesian tin mines.
The Bangka Tin Working Group is expected to publish recommendations about how to resolve the situation by the end of 2013.
“It’s great that most of the mobile industry is now being upfront with customers about the socially and environmentally damaging tin in their phones – and committing to tackle the problems together,” Friends of the Earth’s Director of Policy and Campaigns Craig Bennett said.
“To prevent problems elsewhere and help companies identify risks and inefficiencies in production, we’re also calling for new laws in Europe requiring them to reveal the full human and environmental impacts of their operations
See statements from Nokia, Sony, Blackberry, Motorola, LG and Samsung in response to Friends of the Earth here (pdf).
This initiative parallels the activities of the joint GeSI and EICC Extractives Work Group, which is working to increase the transparency and traceability of conflict materials in the supply chain. This work lead to the establishment of the Conflict-Free Smelter Program.
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