3/28/2023 0 Comments Apple recycle![]() ![]() Wiens is a tech repair advocate and head of online instruction site iFixit. "I call her Daisy the Deathbot," said Kyle Wiens. But if you squint and look another way, Daisy might look like an expensive and cynical PR ploy by one of the world's richest companies to whitewash the damage it's doing to the planet through its massive size. You could see Daisy as Apple's attempt to right some of these wrongs. Worse, we might just toss our once-loved phone into a landfill. Or we may ship them off to an e-recycler that shreds or smashes them to collect the materials as efficiently as possible. Our old ones often go in a drawer as a backup "just in case" phone. Liam, Daisy's predecessor, was designed for the iPhone 6.Īnother problem comes when we upgrade to new devices, something the tech industry encourages through warranty expirations and payment contracts. Some materials could be used up in the next half century, she said, leaving us without key components for the screens on our TVs and tablets, or pieces that help magnets make the alert vibrations on our watches and phones. "You have a perfect storm brewing of everyone needs this stuff and the supply is rapidly shrinking," said Callie Babbitt, an associate professor of sustainability at Rochester Institute of Technology. But it's not so great for an employee's conscience.Īpple's mammoth success - and the business of countless other computer and gadget makers - has come at a high cost, counted in untold tons of aluminum, cobalt, copper, glass, gold, lithium, paper, plastic, steel, tantalum, tin, tungsten, zinc and many other raw materials that are smelted, extruded, compressed, etched and polished into the magical device you're using to read this story. That's great for Apple's bottom line, and helped to turn the Cupertino company from a niche computer maker into one of the world's most highly valued companies - ever. Sometime this year it may pass 1.5 billion iPhones since the first one debuted, meaning in a little over a decade, Apple's shipped enough phones to circle the planet more than 13 times. It's going to take a while, but it'll also take tons of innovation.Īpple is one of the world's top phone makers, shipping an estimated 218 million iPhones last year alone. Give a recycler a bunch of copper charging coils, and it's better than asking it to break apart a phone in search of them.Īpple thinks this can be done in part because it's starting to get there itself. If recyclers can learn how to more easily take apart technology, they can more efficiently collect the valuable materials. That's right: Recycling produces trash too. Still, a series of sifters and magnets attempt to collect the recyclable materials before the rest is thrown out. This process often mixes materials together, making them impure and less valuable. They're put in a shredder or a hammerlike pounder that breaks apart the devices in an effort to expose the elements inside. When other electronics like laptops, printers and monitors are recycled, they don't go through a Daisy. ![]() And just 20% of that, or 8.9 million metric tons, was recycled.ĭaisy can disassemble 15 iPhone models at a rate of 200 per hour. A United Nations report found that in 2016, the world created 44.7 million metric tons of e-waste, or 2.1 million Statues of Liberty stacked together. "It's going to take a while, but it'll also take tons of innovation."Īpple thinks sharing what it's learned could help others, too.Īnd as it happens, we could use all the help we can get. "This is about the big, hairy goal of making all our products from recycled materials," said Lisa Jackson, Apple's vice president of environment, policy and social initiatives, in an interview. Now it's inviting in academics, recyclers and other companies to learn how Daisy works.Īnd, hopefully, use its technology to make e-recycling around the world better. Last year, in time for Earth Day then, Apple announced Daisy for the first time to the world via a press release and video. In a coordinated and sometimes violent dance, Daisy removes the screen, battery, screws, sensors, logic board and wireless charging coil, leaving its husk of an aluminum shell.Īpple invited me here not just to see Daisy in action, but also the Material Recovery Lab that's been built up around it. Daisy is 33 feet long, has five arms and can methodically deconstruct any of 15 iPhone models - from 2012's iPhone 5 to 2018's iPhone XS - at a rate of 200 per hour. Daisy is actually a series of five robot arms working in an elaborate dance.
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