Is it sustainable to get phone accessories from China?

Buying phone accessories from Dutch online stores can be quite expensive. On the other hand, your phone is well protected. What if you opt for a cheap case via AliExpress? Is that really sustainable? In this article we look at how this can be measured and what you can really do better about, at least when it comes to the climate.

Buy phone case on AliExpress

New phone? Then you will probably be extra careful with that for the first one or two months. Not just because it’s new, but because your AliExpress phone case needs that time to get to your local doormat from China. Fortunately, because if it had gone even faster, it would have been considerably less durable. But is it even a good idea from an eco-perspective to get your phone accessories from China?

There are many reasons to buy your phone case through Chinese online stores like AliExpress. It’s much cheaper, you have a lot of choice, you can personalize it yourself and you just shop from the comfort of your home. However, there are also many drawbacks to shopping from China. Only in that country do less strict rules apply to labor, but products are copied and there are other safety standards for tech that are also much less focused on sustainability. In addition, it is also less easy to get in touch with the supplier if your product is not to your liking or is broken.

This sustainability issue goes further than just the long journey that a product has to take before you get it in your hands. For example, the clothing of many Chinese retailers – such as Shein, for example – often appears to contain twenty times as much lead than many countries consider safe. In any case, the garments are made with a lot of chemicals and that in itself is not only dangerous for your own health, but it is not good for the planet.

Bubble wrap

Moreover, the Chinese are very fond of plastic anyway: not only for their products, but also for the packaging and shipping envelopes. Plastic coatings, plastic bags, bubble wrap: the problem is that you don’t choose that yourself. With a product you can still think: a little too plastic fantastic, but most retailers don’t give a heads-up about the way they ship something. Of course, products that you buy here from a Dutch retailer are sometimes packaged in plastic, but in general this is better thought out. For example, many clothing stores no longer put all items in plastic bags before they go into the box.

The main argument for sustainability is, of course, shipping. Although you do indeed have to wait longer for your products, it does not necessarily mean that they are extremely durable. It is better than using a courier of course, but your item will still be individually packed in a container. Then it goes by plane or boat to your country. It is therefore a bit silly to accuse stores such as HEMA, Action and the web stores that they get a lot of their stuff from China. That’s true, but they buy in bulk and not individually. As a result, it remains more sustainable in terms of transport to buy from a Dutch store.

At least, it also depends on how long you’re looking for. If you count hours from all kinds of data centers that you use during your online search, you might be more sustainable if you have it come from China. The emissions from data centers worldwide appear to be greater than those from the aviation industry, writes The Guardian. Three hours of surfing would have just as much impact in terms of sustainability as having something shipped by AliExpress (Energids). On the other hand, the emissions of the sixteen largest seagoing vessels are also just as much as all cars combined, according to CE Delft. It might be strange to look at it in those contexts, but especially if you’re into data, it’s worth researching before you buy.

Import duties and VAT

You can still choose to buy your phone case from Chinese providers, but calculate carefully what the difference is with a phone case from a Dutch web store. Don’t forget to look beyond the price of the item: shipping costs, import duties, VAT: factor that in too, because there are quite a lot of taxes. Then see what the difference is in price and what you find comfortable. Fair is fair, if you buy a smartphone of tens, if not hundreds of euros, then you can still miss a tenner for a case?

In the end, it’s not all about the price of a product, because the material from which the covers are made is certainly not always sustainable. You could also look at covers that are made from recycled plastic (Lifeproof, for example) or biodegradable material (Pela). Coolblue and Bol.com both have sections with sustainable phone cases. You often pay more for this, but this reduces your footprint compared to other covers.

Do you ever think about the sustainability of your purchases? Leave your comment below this article.

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