Apple's Use of Recycled Materials in Devices

Some of the components of the products that Apple uses are made from the recovered material.
Apple Company is one of the most sustainable companies in the electronic sector.  Apple is one of those who really do their best in reducing the carbon footprint. Among that important activity by which it has reduced the carbon footprint comprises with increment of usage of used products that are used in those type of electronic gadgets comprises of iPhone, MacBook, iPads, and many others, etc. Those products produced that will create some parts making some sort of product through which policy becomes less carbon impressionable achieved through reducing its productions impact.

Apple has really succeeded in accepting recycled materials in many component parts of devices for many decades. This does not only minimize the amount of new raw materials that the company consumes but also reduces the firm's dependence on mining and the extreme environmental impacts associated with mining by assimilating these materials into its production processes. It uses recycled materials especially in its metal, plastic, and rare earth components. It is part of the company's long-term strategy for popularizing a circular economy where the products are either reused or recycled rather than discarding them.

Most of the Apple devices make it the company with the most effort when it comes to making most of the product out of recycled materials. This has seen it pioneer in the use of aluminum for a long time. To name a few examples, it had some of its own products for example, in some of the MacBook Air models, which used 100 percent recycled aluminum enclosures. This gives a significant reduction in mining footprint and also saves a huge amount of energy during the manufacturing process since aluminum is a high-energy-content product to produce.
Apple has positioned itself a few steps ahead in rare earth by incorporating recyclable parts into those products. Such metals are extremely common in the productions of electronic products, and such ranges include various constituents within a battery and also hold an important position in any magnet. Earlier, they were recognized as part of huge environmental concerns about their processing. This is because the company has resulted in using recycled rare earth elements as its new antidote to reduce its adverse effects on the environment without necessarily changing the quality and performance of the products.

The company continued and upgraded some of the gadgets, for instance, iPhone by using recycled plastics. The company utilized the same materials used in the mobile phone's plastic parts and circuit boards for a part of the iPhone's body. Apart from this goal toward attaining the condition where 100% of packaging materials would be recyclable or biodegradable by this year, which also contributes to the company's vision to make free all its packaging plastics by 2025.

Sourcing Strategy for Recyclate for Apple
However, at Apple, the whole strategy would be built at the sourcing end in order to run their material supply chain in terms of recycling. For "Material Recovery Lab," Apple has had a program housed at its headquarters where engineers work around developing more-efficient ways of material recovery from all the old pieces of equipment coming in.

The latest product-loop-closing measure from Apple is a news release by the company about something called Material Recovery Lab. There, it intends to figure out how worldwide new technologies and techniques could be scaled entirely, in a way of a recycling robot tearing apart the old iPhones with the extraction of the reusable components that go into them-the rare earths, the cobalt, and the lithium, for instance. This method will make e-waste environmentally low-impact but simultaneously serves as a goal of the company toward minimizing the intake of fresh raw materials.

Another focus of the company includes its relationship with its suppliers:. In this, it partners with the suppliers on the requirements they should meet to ensure that the suppliers will offer high-order levels of standards in order to sustain and also opening up accessibility to responsible sourcing of recycled materials. It has the chance to find suppliers would uphold a strict environmental requirement in that latter are going to source their recycled and sustainably sourced material, whenever possible.
Conclusion: The Apple Model of the Circular Economy
Concern to the circular economy, the company managed to get investments for recycling materials that can be put into its products. A circular economy is more focused on the reusing and recycling of materials in order to prolong the lifecycles of its products and less waste. In this regard, Apple is looking forward to making its products fully recyclable and the elimination of virgin material in the production process.

However, the company also tries to make its products longer lasting and easier to repair so fewer products will end up in landfills as the more it is easy to repair its products. Apple also allows the consumer to be given a credit for their old phone through its 'Apple Trade In' program. Some are refurbished for sale, and others are dismantled for parts, with materials recovered for furthering the sustainability campaigns by Apple.

The company runs its business on 100% renewable energy and maintains a 100% recycled or renewable business. So, to this date, the company has done some great strides towards achieving 100% recycled content in its products. Several of its products have totally recycled aluminum and hundreds more. Therefore, this time around, the firm will, for the first time finally hope to offer a product that leaves zero carbon footprint and can thus manage a full closed-loop supply chain.

Environmental Impact and Future Objectives
In fact, it does well to the environment because Apple puts this recycled material into the gadget. Many reports from the firm show that usage of recycled aluminum decreases carbon emissions associated with aluminum manufacture by 90%. Notably, utilization of such recycled materials mean that destruction resulting from mining activities to the environment will be reduced; mining activity is normally said to destroy some habitats, pollute, and deplete resources.

The company wants to do more than that. It had promised the world a long time ago that all of its products would be carbon-neutral by 2030. This means using recycled materials, lowering the emission during the manufacturing process, and other factors that go through the supply chain. The firm has involved its suppliers in the process of reducing emissions through an increase in the efficiency in the use of energy and an increase in the percentage of renewable sources of energy.

This would mean that the firm is somehow trying to avoid environmental and sustainability influence. However, not at an almost fully closed cycle economies, so one may say that Apple is actually trying toward recycling material usage in an attempt that inspires other companies in the tech world and beyond.

Conclusion
It is the biggest effort taken by Apple in the context of sustainability as recycled material ensures a minimal extent of damage to the environment. Waste reduction and consumption of fresh raw materials is declined; this diminishes the carbon footprint, thereby utilizing recycled aluminum, rare earth elements, and plastics. This places Apple at the forefront of the technological world and, in fact, on the environmental front as well, through dedication to innovation in recycling technologies and even a much broader approach toward the circular economy.

Source: Apple Sustainability Reports