eSIMs, the Environment and the impact on your Business

The mobile industry relies on a dense web of manufacturing, logistical, and waste processes, each of which has a range of environmental impacts. Reports show the telco industry is responsible for between 0.4% and 4% of all global CO2 emissions, or up to twice as much as the aviation industry. Through a combination of new technologies and strategic pivots, mobile companies can address these issues and deliver a truly sustainable industry. One innovation that’s helping pave the way towards this is the eSIM. 

The eSIM, or embedded SIM, is generally recognized as the successor to the SIM card. These software-based SIM profiles are remotely downloaded to a mobile device and stored on a microchip (called the eUICC), hardwired into the body of the device. Crucially, multiple eSIMs can be stored on the same device – the latest iPhone supports up to eight concurrent eSIMs.  

• For consumers, eSIMs provide greater convenience than SIM cards: they can be installed instantly, anytime, from anywhere, and don’t carry the risk of loss, damage, or theft associated with SIM cards.  

• For device manufacturers, doing away with a SIM tray frees up valuable space in mobile device hardware to include new features, larger batteries, and faster processors. 

There is another, more pressing advantage to eSIMs that is also accelerating adoption: eSIMs are far more sustainable than traditional SIM cards.

The environmental impact of SIM cards

The planetary toll caused by SIM cards is a result of two key factors: the large volume of SIM cards produced every year, and the variety of materials required to create them.

Every year, 4.5 billion SIM cards are produced.

Plastic waste is the most directly observable drawback to SIM cards – in 2024 alone, they contributed over 18,000 tons of non-recyclable, non-biodegradable waste to the environment. New SIM cards are typically manufactured as cutouts within a credit-card-sized PVC rectangle, which is itself packaged for sale in further layers of plastic, card, and foil. These plastic and silicon elements are essential to the cards’ function – some proposed solutions, such as the half-sized eco SIM cards from Giesecke+Devrient (manufacturers of the first SIM card in 1991), or Vodafone’s recycled SIM card housing – mitigate this damage, but don’t offer a truly sustainable solution.

This issue is compounded by the dense fusion of silicon, gold, and PVC that goes into a SIM card. This formula essentially makes them impossible to recycle, condemning SIM cards to the landfill. As it stands, SIM cards are a major contributor to global electronic waste, or e-waste – 80% of which, by UN estimates, is non-recyclable.

A growing awareness of microplastics has placed this issue squarely in the public consciousness, and device manufacturers and network operators are hurrying to respond by improving their environmental credentials. Some specialist operators do extract and recycle gold from old SIM cards, and a growing number of new SIM cards are produced from recycled plastic pellets. To date, however, there has never been a viable non-landfill option for the end of a SIM card lifecycle. By going digital with an eSIM, these issues are eradicated.

A further issue raised by this complex construction is the procurement of multiple materials, many of which, like gold, are scarce and require intensive excavation. Similar to the rare earth metals required to produce mobile hardware and batteries, increasing public awareness of the social and environmental impact of this mining is driving manufacturers and operators to seek alternatives.

How do eSIMs address these concerns?

At every step of the product lifecycle, eSIMs avoid the environmental damage caused by SIM cards.

• Manufacturing: Producing a new SIM card requires the extraction and transport of multiple raw materials, as well as a physical factory. An eSIM is entirely digital, with multiple eSIMs able to be stored on a single eUICC chip soldered into the mobile device's hardware.

• Packaging: SIM cards are packaged in larger plastic cards, then repackaged. SIM cards sold online receive a further layer of packaging.

• Transport: SIM cards, whether purchased physically or online, are part of a vast logistical network requiring global transit.

• Disposal: SIM cards are non-recyclable and non-biodegradable. They are a major contributor to global e-waste.

eSIMs as an alternative

The wider mobile industry itself is a major contributor to the climate crisis. The projected increase in global data requirements, particularly in the field of IoT, will see this percentage rise swiftly unless cross-industry action is taken. 

As operators, manufacturers, and governments search for viable tools to address this, eSIMs have emerged as a practical replacement for SIM cards. While eSIM adoption is only a small step towards a truly mobile sustainable industry, its rapid deployment capabilities and surging popularity mean that mass adoption may be possible.  

For now, eSIMs can be a useful contribution to a wider sustainability strategy.
While adopting environmentally friendly policies is almost always beneficial to business, resistance still remains. Research from the University of Delaware's Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance found that environmentally sustainable products and services among S&P 100 companies grow revenue around six times higher than overall company revenue growth. 

Many sustainable practices, such as switching to renewable energy sources or building a carbon-neutral supply chain, only reveal their many economic benefits over time, or through abstract metrics that aren’t easily presented. eSIMs, in contrast, offers immediate revenue benefits, providing concrete and rapid proof of success. 

• New customer bases: eSIMs allow brands to diversify their customer base by instantly reaching new customers around the world. Their flexibility also makes them popular options for a wide range of SIM use cases, such as travel SIMs or temporary work SIMs.

• Rapid deployment and rapid go-to-market times: This same remote deployment allows for rapid integration of eSIM services and swift go-to-market readiness of eSIM-based products.

• Remote worldwide usage: An eSIM can be remotely sent to anyone, anywhere, with no logistical or manufacturing effort. This enables immediate global scaling with minimal environmental impact.

Long a feature of ethical smartphone brands like SHIFT and Fairphone, eSIM-compatible smartphones are now produced by nearly every major device manufacturer. Apple’s introduction of an eSIM-only iPhone 14 model in 2022 marked a sea change for public awareness and acceptance of the technology.

One likely interpretation eSIMs have been so readily adopted is that they are an environmentally friendly solution that offers immediate cost benefits to network operators and device manufacturers.

Remote SIM Provisioning

Even after their initial manufacturing and packaging, SIM cards continue to take an environmental toll through the logistics and further packaging required to reach the end user.

Remote SIM provisioning is an essential advantage of eSIMs. RSP is the reason an eSIM profile can be instantly sent to anyone, anywhere in the world.

Not only is this far more convenient for users and operators, it eliminates the packaging and transportation costs of SIM cards in a single stroke. To harness this movement, however, operators require a viable Remote SIM Provisioning (RSP) service. 1GLOBAL RSP is specifically designed for multinational mobile operators – simple, secure, and scalable, 1GLOBAL RSP services help operators prepare for and meet the rising demand for eSIMs.

Moving things online

Throughout their lifecycle, eSIMs can be continually monitored, managed and recalled online. A secondary benefit to the eSIM revolution is that these SIMs can be entirely managed and monitored via the cloud, rather than dedicated physical servers. They can adopt the format of virtual network functions (VNFs) or Cloud Native Functions (CNFs) as part of a public or private shared cloud infrastructure. While a server hosting facility is still required to store this data, centralizing the process greatly reduces the overall energy consumption.

Think of it like an electric car – by centralizing the site of the emissions (in this case, a shared cloud facility) the emissions themselves are far easier to tackle and mitigate through renewable methods. Renewable energy-powered data centers are a key component in the telecom industry’s push towards sustainability.

Barriers to total eSIM adoption

While eSIMs are currently projected to overtake SIM cards as the most common SIM format in the next decade, universal eSIM adoption is still uncertain. This is down to several factors, ranging from the global availability of eSIM-enabled devices to regional regulations concerning eSIM usage. There are also specialist circumstances in industrial and commercial processes where eSIMs are not yet viable replacements for physical SIM cards.

These obstacles must be overcome to fully eradicate physical SIMs from the mobile industry.

Nevertheless, demand for eSIMs is surging, due in part to a widening public awareness of the mobile industry’s environmental toll.

Mobile operators who act now to embrace this eSIM revolution and implement other sustainable policies will be well-positioned for the future of the mobile industry. Rising global data demands require a sustainable solution.

Doing so requires an eSIM partner: 1GLOBAL is an industry-leading eSIM provider and telco operator, with a network covering 190+ countries. As a telecoms provider ourselves, we have a unique understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing the mobile industry. That’s why we offer a unique suite of eSIM-based products for network operators, financial institutions, IoT businesses, and more.

Switching to eSIMs alone won’t stop the climate crisis. The technology can be an essential building block in a new sustainable telco business model — one that harnesses new developments in cloud computing and sustainable hardware, together with drastic changes to logistics, manufacturing and supply chain management.

How choosing eSIMs over SIM cards impacts your business 

Adapting to eSIM technology isn’t just a sustainability move — it’s a strategic business shift that unlocks faster scaling, reduces operational costs, and drives measurable revenue impact. Below is a simplified table comparing key aspects: