Apple will use only recycled cobalt in batteries by 2025
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Apple will use only 100% recycled cobalt in batteries designed for its devices by 2025. By the same year, the magnets of the devices will also use entirely recycled rare earth elements and all the printed circuits designed by the company will use 100% recycled tin solder and gold plating.
The announcement came from the company in recent days. Cobalt is one of the strategic materials for technological products and for the energy transition. Even in Europe. On the path to climate neutrality in 2050, the Katholieke Universiteit (KU Leuven) of Belgium estimates an increase in European demand for lithium by 3535%, cobalt by 330% and nickel by 100%. China today processes 65% of global production: 70% is in fact extracted in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but of the 19 industries in the sector in the country, 15 are wholly or partly owned by Chinese companies.
In the press release, Apple explains where it starts from and plans for the future. In 2022, the company expanded its use of recycled key metals and more than two-thirds of all aluminum, nearly three-quarters of all rare earths, and more than 95 percent of all tungsten in Apple products comes from recycled materials. 100% recycled”. A path included in the goal of making every product carbon neutral in 2030.
In 2022, a quarter of the cobalt in Apple products came from recycled material, up from 13% the previous year. The use of certified 100% recycled rare earth elements is rising from 45% in 2021 to 73% in 2022. ‘use of this material to all of its devices, including the magnets found in the latest models of iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, MacBook and Mac.
In the process a contribution comes from robotics. Daisy, Apple’s iPhone disassembly robot, separates batteries from other components and allows recycling centers to recover cobalt and other materials, including lithium. Since 2019, Apple estimates that more than 11,000 kilograms of cobalt have been recovered from batteries extracted from Daisy and then returned to the secondary market.
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