On April 20, Apple officially announced that the use of renewable materials in all of the company's products reached a new high of 20%. Among them, the use of renewable tungsten, rare earth metals and cobalt has more than doubled, and for the first time, certified renewable gold has been used in products, further increasing the use of renewable materials.
According to reports, Apple's products produced in 2021 use 45% of certified recycled rare earth elements, 30% of certified recycled tin, 13% of certified recycled cobalt and certified recycled gold. All new iPhone, iPad, AirPods and Mac devices use 100% recycled tin for motherboard soldering materials. Apple also used recycled gold for the first time in the metal wire of the motherboard plating as well as the front and rear cameras of the iPhone 13 series.
In addition, 59% of all the aluminum metal materials used in Apple products come from renewable resources, and the shells of some products are completely made of 100% recycled aluminum metal. Apple is also reducing the use of plastics in packaging materials, which has been reduced to 4% in 2021, and plans to completely eliminate plastics in all product packaging by the end of 2025.
Apple also leads the industry in recycling used machines and manufacturing materials, and today unveiled its latest recycling technology, "Taz", a machine that uses an open approach to improve material recycling efficiency. Apple's iPhone disassembly robot Daisy has also been further improved, and it can disassemble 23 iPhone models. Another robot, Dave, which disassembles the haptic engine, can also help Apple recover rare earth magnets, tungsten and steel from old products.
Apple's environmental protection concept has always been at the forefront of the industry, continuously improving the use of renewable materials in products, and developing a number of new technologies to improve the efficiency of material recycling. Apple's goal is that the materials for the future production of products are obtained from the current products, no longer ask for any materials from the earth, and use today's products to produce tomorrow's products.
In recent years, Apple has also quietly implemented many initiatives, such as helping global suppliers use renewable energy for manufacturing. The most profound point that everyone feels is that the Apple iPhone packaging box has become "simple", not only canceling the included charger to make the packaging box thinner, but also removing the external protective film last year and becoming a seal. These changes have caused Apple to suffer a lot of complaints, but they have really helped it take a big step in the cause of environmental protection.
Environmental protection and new energy are common topics in the world in the future, and many major science and technology manufacturers have made efforts in this regard. Many of Apple's practices are indeed worth learning, and I hope that domestic manufacturers can also look up to Apple in these aspects.