Apple has been communicating about its environmental strategy for a long time. The company announces that it has achieved carbon neutrality in its business activities since 2020. The next step is to achieve this neutrality for all of its production. By 2030, all Apple products will be made with clean energy and even more recycled materials.
In reality, Apple’s desire is to reduce all of its CO2 emissions in its production by 75% compared to 2015. “We have already reduced our gross carbon footprint by more than 45% since 2015”indicates the American company in its latest environmental report.
14 priority materials
Apple will prioritize 14 materials (aluminum, cobalt, copper, glass, gold, lithium, paper, plastic, rare earth elements, steel, tantalum, tin, tungsten, and zinc) based on their environmental impact, human rights and procurement. Together, they make up nearly 90% of the materials used in Apple products.
The American manufacturer wishes, in the long term, to use a maximum of recycled materials in its products, with for example a new objective of 100% recycled cobalt in all its batteries by 2025. By this deadline, it should be the same for rare earth elements. As for the printed circuits, these should have tin solders as well as a 100% recycled gold plating.
20% of materials used in 2022 from recycled or renewable resources
In 2022, approximately 20% of all materials used in Apple products came from recycled or renewable resources. In detail, 95% of tungsten, 73% of rare earths, 67% of aluminum, 38% of tin and 25% of cobalt composing Apple products already come from recycled resources. On the computer side, the latest generation of MacBook Air benefits from the use of 40% recycled and renewable materials.
In this way, Apple strives to depend less and less on materials extracted from mines, while encouraging local populations to leave the mining sector, to develop skills and thus tend towards new professions.
To carry out this policy, Apple offers several free take-back and recycling services for old devices. The company has also developed a disassembly robot, Daisy, capable of recovering the various components of around twenty iPhone models. Today there are two models in the world, each capable of processing up to 200 iPhones per hour.