The environment and recycling are increasingly at the center of Apple’s concerns. After 2012, there is a class of the most polluting companies in a report by the NGO Greenpeace on the data centers -amended by the suite with the latest advances by Apple-, the Californian company has a coup d’accélérateur pour inverser the tendency.
A decade later, Apple is generally hailed for its improved environmental practices. After switching its data centers to 100% renewable energy since 2015 and setting up several solar parks and other facilities, the American giant has tackled other much more complex projects for its operation: the recycling of materials in its products.
With announcements of robots deboning iPhones, iPads, or other Macs, recycling items in new arrivals, and recovery programs for old devices, Apple has gradually introduced into people’s minds the idea that everything can be recovered to redo everything. . It still has to be seen to be believed when a partially recycled new iPhone looks like a new iPhone… So the information campaign continues.
Gold, tin and cobalt 100% recycled by 2025
So on Thursday, the company announced a “big acceleration” in the use of recycled materials in its products with a new target date to reach 100% recycled cobalt by 2025 (25% recycled cobalt by 2022). This will be used in particular in the batteries of the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch or even MacBook. The cobalt present in lithium-ion batteries allows for greater autonomy and better charge level management. But cobalt mining remains a controversial issue, due to the regions where it can be mined, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa where human rights, poverty and child labor issues are recurring issues. In order to be transparent about its supply chain, since 2017, Apple has provided access to the list of its refineries and smelters.
While waiting to switch to other technologies that are also less expensive, but sometimes also less efficient, Apple is committed to the environment and recycles what already exists. This is also in addition to rare earths now 73% recycled into products (magnets, Taptic Engine, etc.) and which Apple promises to increase to 100% by 2025. Gold-plated and solder-plated PCBs will follow the same path for be 100% recycled (motherboard, flexible buttons and cameras…).
Robots and augmented reality to better disassemble products
“Our ambition is to one day use 100% recycled and renewable materials in our products,” explains Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president in charge of environment and social initiatives, who recalls that the company is launching a program to be carbon neutral by 2030. Even packaging has taken the recycling turn to protect the environment with the abandonment of plastic in packaging, fiber alternatives for screen films, etc. No more labels with a printer that prints directly on the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro box as well as overprint varnish on other product packaging. Enough to avoid tons of plastic and carbon dioxide.
This also requires innovation in how to approach recycling as soon as the recovered products are dismantled. Daisy, Liam or even Dave, their robots that disassemble elements or materials, do much of the work upstream while Apple has launched an augmented reality system to help its partners understand images projected on the work surface, how to best disassemble the devices.
Source: BFM TV
