Apple's new milestone

Apple is moving closer to its environmental protection goals as the percentage of recycled materials in its products has reached a record high.

The MacBook Neo uses a new aluminum forming process, reducing the amount of raw material used. Photo: Bloomberg .

Apple has just released its annual environmental report. The company has reached a significant milestone, aiming for 30% recycled materials to be used in all products shipped by 2025. This is the highest level ever, moving towards carbon neutrality by 2030.

The components in the product also recorded positive figures. Apple-designed batteries now use 100% recycled cobalt, magnets contain 100% recycled rare earth elements. Printed circuit boards designed by the company have 100% recycled gold plating and tin solder.

The highlight of the campaign is the MacBook Neo, which uses 60% recycled materials, the highest percentage of any Apple device to date. The new aluminum forming process uses only half the raw materials compared to traditional manufacturing.

Apple and its partners have also developed a new anodizing process. The system achieves a water reuse rate of 70%, turning traditional water consumption into a nearly closed-loop system. The company plans to expand this process to other production lines in the future.

Apple has also completely switched to fiber-based packaging, fulfilling its commitment to eliminate plastic from all packaging shipped by 2025.

To enhance recycling capabilities, Apple has deployed the Cora system at its Advanced Recovery Center in California (USA).

Cora's processing begins with a rotary grinding system. This technology allows for more efficient material separation compared to conventional grinders, thereby minimizing losses during the sorting stage.

The system utilizes advanced sensor-based sorting machines, combined with high-performance magnets to ensure accuracy. For example, X-ray fluorescence sorting machines identify and recover materials based on their atomic composition. Thanks to this equipment, components such as titanium, rare earth elements, and tungsten are retained.

In addition, the system is equipped with an advanced ultraspectral plastic sorter. This device is capable of identifying and separating plastics according to polymer type, including black plastics that are very difficult to recover.

According to MacRumors , Apple is also developing ARIS, a machine learning system that helps classify and sort electronic waste, running on the Mac mini. The system is currently being tested with partners.

Apple says its product packaging is now completely plastic-free. Photo: Medium .

Apple also optimizes energy usage. Apple's direct suppliers have purchased more than 20 GW of renewable energy by 2025, generating more than 38 million MWh of electricity, enough to power more than 3.4 million households in the US for a year.

Apple itself also purchased an additional 1.8 GW to provide renewable energy power to its offices, retail stores, and data centers.

Apple and its suppliers have saved 64.3 billion liters of freshwater by 2025. Meanwhile, the Fifth Avenue store in New York became the company's first retail location to achieve TRUE Zero Waste Certification, which requires facilities to divert more than 90% of their waste away from landfills.

Specifically, Apple and its partners have moved more than 600,000 tons of waste from landfills by 2025. Currently, about 400 supplier facilities are participating in the program.

Source: https://znews.vn/cot-moc-moi-cua-apple-post1644474.html