One LCA every DAY: I have broken the screen on my iphone 4

"I have broken the screen on my iphone 4" is not just the title of this post but the reality.. less than 3 hours ago my mobile phone decided to test the gravity law and jumped from the table to the floor.. and the result is that the front screen is broken.

So.. the question is: what is more environmentally friendly to repair it or to get a new one?

The answer seems easy but.. probably it will depend on where the technical service is, from where comes from the new screen, which mode of transport is used for their transportation, the amount and type of energy used to repair it, and what do we do with the old and broken screen?

Would it be possible that the new phone was made using less resources, in a more energy efficient process, coming from a nearer place and that the new phone consumes less energy when recharging its battery, and that the new battery is done with less toxic materials?? in that case (imaginary case).. maybe it would be better to get a new one than repair the old one..

Therefore, even though it seems almost impossible that getting a new mobile phone was a better option than just repairing a part of it, I was trying to make you realise that it would be possible..and that the answer should be based on an LCA.

You can check the following figures that come from the presentation of Romas Malevicius
"An application of LCA. Environmental impact of iPhone 3GS & iPhone 4" (07.03.2010) and you will see that iphone 4 is (in theory) more environmental friendly (in terms of material use and CO2 emissions) than the previous one but probably less that the new one..