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Apple's Recycling Initiatives Recover $40 Million in Gold

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Apple released its latest annual environmental report yesterday, and some of the numbers included reveal just how much the company is able to recover from old devices.

Business Insider notes that Apple was able to recover over 61 million pounds of steel, aluminum, glass, and other materials from its computers and iPhones. Included in that total is 2,204 pounds of gold, which is well over a ton.

Screen-Shot-2016-04-15-at-10.21.42-800x531.jpg

The gold haul alone is worth $40 million at current prices ($1,229.80 per troy ounce of gold), while the total amount of material recovered is reportedly worth well over $50 million.

Cult of Mac ran the figures quoted by Apple through today's metal prices, and came up with individual figures for copper ($6.4 million), aluminum ($3.2 million), silver ($1.6 million), nickel ($160,426), zinc ($109,503), and lead ($33,999).

Apple-iphone-recycling-numbers.jpg

Apple says in total it collected almost 90 million pounds of ewaste through its recycling programs, which works out as 71 percent of the total weight of the products the company sold seven years earlier.

Apple made much of its efforts to reduce waste at its media event last month. The company also unveiled a robotic system it has developed called 'Liam' that can disassemble old iPhones and recover recyclable materials.

The company said that Liam will initially focus on recycling junked iPhone 6 handsets, but Apple plans to modify and expand the system to deconstruct different models and recover more resources.

Article Link: Apple's Recycling Initiatives Recover $40 Million in Gold
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2016/04/15/apple-recycling-recovered-40-million-in-gold/
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This sales campaign feels a bit suspect given Apple's reliance on unsustainable production practices. Perhaps it's no coincidence that they have released this report alongside their current sales strategy...

 
mac1984user said:
This sales campaign feels a bit suspect given Apple's reliance on unsustainable production practices.
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So... I feel like Apple is doing a lot more than most other companies to have full end-to-end recycling for their products. Why knock Apple for this? Or is it that they're not making the new iPhones entirely out of 100% sustainable bamboo? Which other major electronics manufacturer is doing better?
 
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CarlJ said:
So... I feel like Apple is doing a lot more than most other companies to have full end-to-end recycling for their products. Why knock Apple for this? Or is it that they're not making the new iPhones entirely out of 100% sustainable bamboo? Which other major electronics manufacturer is doing better?
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It's not that, but the lack of reflexivity on Apple's part. Sure, they're a tech company and perhaps are doing more than others in regards to recycling, etc. However, you would have thought they'd expect a bit of criticism for claiming that purchasing an app is going to save the world, particularly when they can't claim to be a sustainable company. It's about acknowledgement, just like I have to realise that in buying my next iPhone, I'm not exactly doing wonders for the environment (yet, I'll still buy it). =P
 
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mac1984user said:
It's not that, but the lack of reflexivity on Apple's part. Sure, they're a tech company and perhaps are doing more than others in regards to recycling, etc. However, you would have thought they'd expect a bit of criticism for claiming that purchasing an app is going to save the world, particularly when they can't claim to be a sustainable company. It's about acknowledgement, just like I have to realise that in buying my next iPhone, I'm not exactly doing wonders for the environment (yet, I'll still buy it). =P
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If you avoid buying new technology products you can mitigate your footprint.

When you buy a new thing, generally that makes the company make two new things to replace it, cause they know they can sell one, maybe they can sell two!

The downside to buying used is you are probably helping someone else buy new, but whatever. I've been only using old Apple stuff since 2012 and things are pretty swell. :)
 
Sharewaredemon said:
If you avoid buying new technology products you can mitigate your footprint.

When you buy a new thing, generally that makes the company make two new things to replace it, cause they know they can sell one, maybe they can sell two!

The downside to buying used is you are probably helping someone else buy new, but whatever. I've been only using old Apple stuff since 2012 and things are pretty swell. :)
Click to expand...

How does buying used mitigate your footprint? Does it matter if you buy used or new?
If you didn't have a computer yesterday but today you do, you gained something. Please explain how your footprint is mitigated.

Companies do a lot of research to determine the demand of their products. I would highly doubt Tim Cook is sitting there saying, "we sold 1 million MBPs last year, we should produce 2 million this year.
 
bruinsrme said:
How does buying used mitigate your footprint? Does it matter if you buy used or new?
If you didn't have a computer yesterday but today you do, you gained something. Please explain how your footprint is mitigated.

Companies do a lot of research to determine the demand of their products. I would highly doubt Tim Cook is sitting there saying, "we sold 1 million MBPs last year, we should produce 2 million this year.
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I only buy used clothing (except socks and underwear).

I'm trying to use things that last, and trying to make them last as long as I can.

I used to buy new products, then I stopped buying new things and keeping the things I had instead of replacing them.

Obviously companies do a lot of research to determine the demand of their products, but my simple point is still worthy.

If no one bought a new Apple product from this point on, eventually they would stop making them.

If we mend and repair and buy used and make things ourselves than companies will stop making them. There are probably enough toasters manufactured in the world that we could stop making them, yet there are hundreds for sale near wherever you are.

WE decide what we need, no one else. We are free to say "this cellphone I've been using from 2009 still works so I'll use it until it breaks".
 
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Sharewaredemon said:
I only buy used clothing (except socks and underwear).

I'm trying to use things that last, and trying to make them last as long as I can.

I used to buy new products, then I stopped buying new things and keeping the things I had instead of replacing them.

Obviously companies do a lot of research to determine the demand of their products, but my simple point is still worthy.

If no one bought a new Apple product from this point on, eventually they would stop making them.

If we mend and repair and buy used and make things ourselves than companies will stop making them. There are probably enough toasters manufactured in the world that we could stop making them, yet there are hundreds for sale near wherever you are.

WE decide what we need, no one else. We are free to say "this cellphone I've been using from 2009 still works so I'll use it until it breaks".
Click to expand...

Without people buying new, the used market would dry up. Then what?
If you buy a used computer that is 2 years old and use it for 3 years, is that any different than buying a new computer and using it for 5 years?
 
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bruinsrme said:
Without people buying new, the used market would dry up. Then what?
If you buy a used computer that is 2 years old and use it for 3 years, is that any different than buying a new computer and using it for 5 years?
Click to expand...

Mitigate means make less bad.

Eventually I will not own a computer at all, for now I use used ones.

Right now I'm using a computer from 2009 I was given in 2012.

When it breaks I'll buy a used one from 2011 or 2012.

When that breaks, probably, I won't buy another new computer, I'll just go to the library to use one but I hope to be living a life where a computer is ultimately not necessary in my day to day.

The idea of mitigation is that I'm buying things that were manufactured a longer time ago.

Personally I really don't think technology serves us, it's designed within a consuming system and so the tools we are given don't REALLY serve us in ways that we would really appreciate. I make money using a computer, like most people, but I want to get away from that because from what I see it's making everyone crazy.
 
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mejsric said:
Gold is found in almost all computer components – processors, motherboards, extension cards, memory DIMMs and so on.
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So at what point are they going to find that Liam's recovered gold quantity is a little below projections, and entirely unrelated, Liam seems to have a bunch of shiny new golden parts in its mechanism, where the engineers thought they had installed steel parts? :D
 
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applepuree said:
Most of these devices are buy backs as part of the upgrade programs. Also don't forget it costs apple to recycle too, so its not all profit.
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I wonder what the per device value of the raw materials equal? Apple pays nearly nothing for trade ins, so I'd be curious what the cost is for them assuming they can't refurbish the device.
 
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