Apple has increased the use of recycled content across its products. The company has used nearly 20 percent of recycled material for its products in 2021, which is the highest ever use of recycled content. Apple has released new details of this process, their recycling innovation efforts, and clean energy, along with some new feature offerings to the consumers ahead of Earth Day, which is on April 22.
For the first time, Apple has introduced certified recycled gold. The company has also shared its Environmental Progress Report 2022 and showed that they have used more than double recycled tungsten, rare earth elements, and cobalt. The company also shared new ways to celebrate Earth Day including supporting World Wildlife Fund by using Apple Pay. With educational resources, curated content, and engaging activities across platforms, Apple customers can take opportunities to appreciate the beauty of nature from wherever they are, learn about key issues like climate change, and support causes and communities working to protect the planet.
Moreover, in 2021, 59 percent of all the aluminium Apple shipped in its products came from recycled sources. Apple has also made significant progress toward the company’s goal to eliminate plastics from its packaging by 2025, with plastics accounting for just 4 percent of packaging in 2021. Since 2015, Apple has reduced plastic in its packaging by 75 percent.
Apple has additionally included 45 percent certified recycled rare earth elements, 30 percent recycled tin, 13 percent certified recycled cobalt, and certified recycled gold, in the fiscal year 2021.
Also, Apple introduced a new recycling machine ‘Taz’, which uses “shredder-like technology to separate magnets from audio modules and recover more rare earth elements,” the company said in its announcement, where they also mentioned that Daisy, a recycling robot, which was introduced in 2018 can now take apart 23 iPhone models for the recycling process.
The company also tried to cancel out the rise in pollution through projects to remove CO2 from the atmosphere in 2021, as per the report.