Last year, Apple achieved its goal of removing all plastic from the packaging of its products – now every Apple gadget you buy comes in 100% fiber-based packaging that you can recycle at home.
The gadgets themselves feature a lot of recycled materials. The company used 30% recycled materials across the products that it shipped last year. And in three specific areas, the recycled content is 100%:
- all Apple-designed batteries use 100% recycled cobalt
- all magnets use 100% recycled rare earth elements
- all Apple-designed printed circuit boards use 100% recycled gold plating and tin solder
All materials – recycled or otherwise – used in Apple manufacturing are sourced responsibly, as Cupertino demands strong human rights and environmental protections from its supply chain.
The MacBook Neo uses the most recycled content out of any Apple product
Individual products are improving too with the new MacBook Neo coming out as one of the top eco-friendly products – it features 60% recycled content overall. This is the most recycled content in an Apple product – yet.
Apple’s designers and engineers deserve a lot of credit for that – the enclosure for the $600 laptop is built using a material-efficient forming process, which cuts the raw material usage in half. Anodizing the aluminum uses less water overall since 70% of the water is reused.
Apple reports that it has reduced plastic usage by over 15,000 metric tons over the last 5 years, thanks to its new all-fiber packaging. Also, its offices and stores worldwide use 100% renewable energy and its supply chain uses over 20 gigawatts of renewable energy. Similarly, water usage is reduced at Apple facilities (55% of water is replenished) and its suppliers (which cut water usage by 17 billion gallons).
Apple’s green milestones
Apple has ambitious goals for 2030 – it wants to make its operations fully carbon neutral and wants to replenish all the water used by its facilities.
Being green is good for the wallet too – to celebrate Earth Day, participating Apple Stores will offer 10% discounts on AirPods and accessories to consumers who recycle select Apple products. This offer is valid until May 16.
You can read more about Apple’s current achievements and future green initiatives here.