What resources are used, on average, to make a computer?

In 2015 reports say, on an average 240Kg of fuel, 22Kg of chemicals, and 1500litres of water to make a computer.

In 2015 more than 164 million laptops were sold. This means that, in just one year, we use more than 246 billion litres of water, 39,360 tonnes of fuel and 3,068 million tonnes of chemicals.

Source:El País and Trendforce

And what resources are used, on average, to make a microchip?

Reports from 2013 and 2015 say,  an average of 132 kg of fuel to produce the microchips that make up a desktop computer.

The energy needed to produce a single microchip is more than the average energy used by a computer over three years of use.

Rucksack

The total use of resources over the course of a product’s life, from mining the components to its final disposal, is known as its “environmental rucksack”.

The environmental rucksack of our technical equipment is very heavy – much greater than the device’s real weight.

To produce one smartphone, we use 44.4 kg of natural resources. For one computer, it’s around one tonne.

To produce all the metal contained in all the mobile phones in circulation today, 450 million tonnes of rock had to be mined and processed, which is 12 times the weight of all the cars circulating in the UK.