Apple announced that in 2021, almost 20% of all the parts it uses in its devices are made from recycled materials. The company confirmed that this is the highest amount of recycled material it has ever used in a given year and is the first time it has used certified recycled gold. In particular, the use of recycled tungsten, rare earth elements and cobalt was doubled.
Apple, while demonstrating its progress in recycling, has announced that it is using a new machine called the Taz, which uses “shatter-like technology” to separate magnets from sound modules and recover additional rare earth elements. The company also said that the iPhone disassembly robot Daisy has been developed to disassemble 23 types of iPhones. There’s also another robot named Dave that breaks up the Taptic Engines, which helps recycle by separating rare earth magnets, tungsten and steel.
While Apple has the ability to produce these robots that can take back components for reuse, other companies may not have these capabilities. To help other companies, Apple says it licenses Daisy’s patents to other companies for free so they can build robots that perform similar tasks. This will help other companies become more environmentally friendly faster.
The details shared by Apple are included in the 2022 Environmental Progress Report published for Earth Day on April 22. To celebrate the day, Apple has created a compilation of related content on its services. Additionally, the firm will donate $1 to the World Wildlife Fund for every purchase made with Apple Pay on apple.com, in the Apple Store app, or at an Apple Store.
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