On April 13, Apple announced an environmental-related measure to advance the use of renewable materials in its products, including a new 2025 goal: to use 100% of all Apple-designed batteries recycled cobalt. In addition, by 2025, magnets in Apple devices will use entirely recycled rare earth elements, and all Apple-designed printed circuit boards will use 100% recycled tin solder and 100% recycled gold plating.
It is understood that Apple has significantly advanced the use of 100% certified recycled cobalt in the past three years, which will make it possible to use this material in all Apple-designed batteries by 2025. A quarter of the cobalt in Apple products will come from recycled materials in 2022, up from 13% the previous year.
In 2022, Apple will greatly promote the use of important recycled metals. Currently, more than two-thirds of the aluminum, nearly three-quarters of the rare earths, and more than 95% of the tungsten in Apple devices come from 100% recycled materials. This rapid progress brings Apple closer to the goal of “using only recycled and renewable materials in all products”, and also advances the company’s goal of making every product carbon neutral by 2030.
It is worth mentioning that Apple has also carried out innovative research and development work for the disassembly and recycling at the end of the product life cycle. For example, Daisy, an iPhone disassembly robot, can separate batteries from other components, allowing professional recycling agencies to recover other materials such as cobalt metal and lithium metal. According to Apple’s estimates, since 2019, more than 11,000 kilograms of cobalt metal has been recovered from batteries extracted from Daisy and returned to the secondary market. In addition, Daisy can help recover rare earth elements, which are mostly lost in the traditional electronics recycling process.