Apple expands hi-tech recycling programs

Apple is increasing its efforts in the field of environmental sustainability. The company has announced an expansion of recycling programs that quadruples the number of outlets to which US customers can return their iPhone to be disassembled by Daisy, the recycling chain robot. Apple has also announced the opening of a Material Recovery Lab that will focus on the study of new recycling processes.

Daisy - the Californian company explains in a note - will disassemble and recycle the eligible iPhones returned to Best Buy stores in the US and to Kpn stores in the Netherlands. The robot can disassemble 15 different iPhone models at a speed of 200 devices per hour, recovering materials that are fed back into the production process such as cobalt, reused in batteries, and the aluminum with which the shell of MacBook Air is made.

"Apple has received almost one million devices through its recycling programs. In 2018, the company reconditioned over 7.8 million Apple devices and helped prevent more than 48,000 tons of electronic waste from ending up in landfills", highlights the company.

The new lab based in Austin, Texas will work on the recycling processes. "It will look for innovative solutions based on robotics and machine learning to improve traditional methodologies such as targeted disassembly, sorting and shredding," Apple concludes.