Apple Plans to Use More Recycled Materials By 2025 – CNET [CNET]

The plan furthers Apple’s push to produce carbon neutral products by 2030.

Apple announced Thursday that it plans on using 100% recycled cobalt in all Apple-designed batteries and 100% recycled tin soldering and gold plating for all Apple-designed circuit boards by 2025. Apple also said that it plans for all magnets in Apple devices to be made from recycled rare earth elements by then, too.

Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of environment, policy and social initiatives, said in a news release that this plan aligns with Apple’s goal of producing carbon-neutral products by 2030.

“We’re working toward both goals with urgency and advancing innovation across our entire industry in the process,” Jackson said in the release.

Apple also said it has made progress in eliminating plastic from the company’s packaging by 2025. Apple said only 4% of its packaging comes from plastic now.

Apple employs a number of robots to help in its efforts to extract and recycle these materials from older devices. Since 2019, the company’s iPhone disassembly robot, Daisy, has helped extract about 24,250 pounds (about 11,000 kilograms) of cobalt from batteries. In 2022, the company introduced a recycling robot, named Taz, to help recover rare earth elements like magnets from products.

For more, check out how difficult it is to make a fully-recycled phone and how plastics recycling misses the point.