Not every big company will be concerned about the fact that it only affects the world and does not affect the planet.

Editor’s note: This article is from WeChat public account “ 爱 范 儿 ” (ID: ifanr), author: Moose

Apple has a factory in Austin, Texas, where workers ’main task is not to produce new equipment, but to“ destroy ”old iPhones that have been recycled from around the world.

They are only part of Apple ’s recycling project. Lisa Jackson, the company ’s vice president of the environmental department, recently spoke to Reuters about future goals, hoping that one day Apple could break away from the mining Reliance to achieve self-sufficiency in production.

Where can mines come from? Naturally, it is extracted from the recycling equipment, or it is to feed its own production with the help of renewable materials.

Can Apple turn into a

This basically reaffirms Apple’s vision of a “circular supply chain”. It first appeared in the Environmental Responsibility Report issued by Apple in 2017, and in the 2018 and 2019 reports, Apple also mentioned that the company is in the Progress on the project.

One of the most important is the design of the recycling process. When Ai Faner visited Apple ’s Texas plant in April last year, he reported that many traditional recycling processes have adopted non-standard manual dismantling methods, which not only causes pollution, but also that the purity of many metals after melting and melting is not high enough to meet the requirements. Requirements for reproduction.

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Because of this, as early as 2016, Apple announced the self-developed iPhone recycling robot Liam. This is a device with a huge robotic arm that can separate iPhone 6 components one by one like “peeling fruit”Come out and send it to the designated recycling area to reduce the chance of different types of metals contaminating each other.

In 2018, Apple also introduced an upgraded version of the “Daisy” robot. Now it has been able to automatically recognize 15 iPhone models. On average, it can disassemble up to 200 iPhones per hour. It can also process materials that cannot be recycled by traditional recycling agencies, such as tungsten in the vibration motor of the iPhone. Apple’s recycling breadth and ratio.

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On the surface, Apple’s emphasis on recycling is obviously considering the impact of environmental issues on brand image, and in some cases, recycling can also be used as a means to stimulate consumers to change.

For example, in recent years, Apple will put a “old for new” poster on a prominent position on the homepage or offline store of the official website, encouraging users to sell old iPhones to Apple, so that they can get a new device at a lower price. .

But the “circular supply chain” itself, including the recycling process, is still a project with many challenges.

If reducing carbon emissions and reducing energy consumption can also be achieved by developing clean energy and optimizing production processes, then these waste electronic equipment can be returned to the market in an equal amount without being wasted and realized The cycle from year to year requires more exploration and choice in the use of raw materials.

Can Apple turn into a

Image from: Reuters

At present, Apple has carried out a classification assessment of dozens of elements and raw materials that may be used in the production of equipment. Some of them do have the possibility of recyclability and large demand, such as tin and aluminum. Apple often sends the dismantled components to upstream recycling plants for them to return the processed raw materials to Apple.

But there are also some raw materials such as rare earth elements, which are used in small amounts, and traditional institutions have not yet been able to recycle them technically.Apple can only develop new technology solutions; as for plastics, Apple will seek new materials to replace them.

After two years of hard work, we have indeed seen some of the results achieved by Apple.

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Since 2017, Apple has used 100% recycled tin solder on the motherboards of all iPhones, Macs, and iPads, which will reduce Apple’s mining of nearly 29,000 tons of tin ore in 2019.

In 2018, Apple introduced MacBook Air and Mac mini models with 100% recycled aluminum bodies, some of which were recycled from the iPhone.

The vibration motors in the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro series last year were also made of 100% recycled rare earth elements.

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In December 2019, Apple also purchased the first “carbon-free aluminum” from two Alcoa Corporation and Rio Tinto. In the official presentation, Apple emphasized that this will bring revolutionary progress to the global aluminum metal manufacturing industry.

Literally, “carbon-free aluminum” can achieve “zero emissions” of carbon dioxide during production, which can be converted to emit oxygen because the carbon is replaced by more advanced conductive materials, and this project also benefits from Apple’s investment .

It can be said that under the control of key components of its own products and the fact that some metal raw materials can be used across different product lines, Apple does have the ability to recover raw materials while spending them. Re-used in a new batch of products.

Tom Butler, chairman of the International Mining and Metals Council, also believes that Apple may be the only company in the industry with the confidence to achieve the 100% self-sufficiency goal.

But it doesn’tIt does not mean that other companies can follow suit. After all, huge financial resources are required behind this.

Can Apple turn into a

Image from: EJ Insight

Some analysts also said that the “100% closed-loop” goal set by Apple is too ideal, because the recovery rate of electronic waste has been maintained at a low level, except for those that are randomly discarded and traded, more are just After a simple treatment, it goes directly to the landfill.

Moreover, Apple ca n’t recycle all the old iPhones in the market. It is difficult to make up for the production needs of hundreds of millions of iPhones every year by just dismantling millions of units. Dependency.

Alex King, director of the Key Materials Institute of the US Department of Energy, said:

Recycling aluminum is already a relatively mature field in the industry. The problem is those rare earth elements. Although they are used in small amounts, most institutions do not have the ability to recycle them. You can only get them from mines.

We also mentioned in previous articles that with the increase in various types of connected equipment, many technology companies and electric vehicle companies have accelerated cooperation with mines to ensure a stable supply of cobalt, a key raw material for lithium batteries. .

As a matter of fact, the battery is the only one. As long as human beings have not found a suitable substitute, the major mines need not worry about their business being affected.

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The disassembly website iFixit also stated in an article in 2019 that for most recyclers, what they need is a “universal solution” for electronics recycling, not a iPhone that can only disassemble 15 iPhones. Expensive robotic arm, because that will not bring them substantial economic benefits.

If Apple really considers environmental protection, it should not onlyFocusing on equipment recycling, it should also reduce the difficulty of repairing equipment so that they can be repaired by third parties, so that consumers can use it for longer.

This is also a point that people often talk about Apple products, especially when it is put together with Apple’s environmental protection strategy, it will feel like a spear and a shield.

Can Apple turn into a

Image from: Washingtonpost

In May 2019, OneZero had an opportunity to contact Apple AirPods recyclers. Unlike the iPhone, which already has a mature recycling program, for airtight devices like AirPods, workers say they must use tools such as pliers to manually open the case, and then remove the battery and audio driver.

The most important thing is that the profits recovered by AirPods currently cannot cover the cost of recycling. The entire recycling work was realized when Apple was willing to make up for the losses of the recyclers. It just proved the recyclability of this headset But it clearly does not have the value of mass popularization.

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In the final analysis, as a business company with hardware sales as its core, letting Apple not encourage users to upgrade and make no profit. Instead, it has to conscientiously keep the old devices in consumers’ pockets. Practical thing.

But just as it puts personal privacy on the table, for Apple, which has a trillion-dollar market value, the topic of environmental protection and profit will always be in a delicate balance.

If there is no commercial success, then it does not have to force itself to face the public and shoulder the social responsibility equivalent to its huge size; it just brings products with better experience to users, instead of saving the planet, Probably not to be criticized.

Not every big company will be concerned about the fact that it only affects the world and does not affect the planet.

Source of the problem map: Apple