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Apple Hits Record 30% Recycled Content Across All Products in 2025

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Apple today announced that a record 30% of material across all products it shipped in 2025 came from recycled content, alongside a series of other environmental milestones published in its annual Environmental Progress Report.

Apple-Environment-Feature.jpg

The achievement marks new highs across several specific components. All batteries designed by Apple now use 100% recycled cobalt, all magnets use 100% recycled rare earth elements, and all Apple-designed printed circuit boards use 100% recycled gold plating and tin soldering. Apple also completed the transition to fully fiber-based packaging, fulfilling a pledge to remove all plastic from packaging by 2025, a goal the company says it reached across every package manufactured today.

Apple's greenhouse gas emissions in 2025 remain down over 60% compared to 2015 levels, holding constant from 2024 despite significant business growth. The company is working toward its Apple 2030 goal of carbon neutrality across its entire footprint by the end of the decade.

MacBook Neo leads the lineup on recycled material. It contains 60% recycled content overall, which is the most of any Apple device to date, and features a new aluminum forming process that uses half the raw material compared to traditional machining. Apple and its suppliers also developed an anodization process that achieves a 70% water-reuse rate, turning a traditionally water-intensive step into a near-closed-loop system. Apple said it plans to expand this process to additional production lines in coming years.

Apple launched Cora, a new electronics-recycling line at its Advanced Recovery Center in California, designed to achieve material recovery rates significantly higher than industry baselines using precision shredding and advanced sensor technology. The company also developed A.R.I.S., a machine learning-powered detection system that helps recyclers classify and sort electronic scrap, running on the Mac mini, which Apple is piloting with partner recyclers.

Apple's direct suppliers procured more than 20 gigawatts of renewable energy in 2025 through the Supplier Clean Energy Program, generating more than 38 million megawatt-hours of electricity, which is enough to power more than 3.4 million U.S. households for a year. Apple itself procured an additional 1.8 gigawatts to power its offices, retail stores, and data centers entirely on renewable electricity.

Apple and its suppliers saved 17 billion gallons of fresh water in 2025, and the company replenished more than half of the water it withdrew to support its global facilities. All eight Apple-owned data centers have now been certified to the Alliance for Water Stewardship standard. Apple has set a goal to replenish all water withdrawn by its facilities worldwide by 2030.

Apple Fifth Avenue in New York City became the company's first retail store to achieve TRUE Zero Waste Certification, which requires facilities to divert more than 90 percent of their waste from landfills. Across its supply chain, Apple and its suppliers redirected more than 600,000 metric tons of waste from landfills in 2025, with 400 supplier facilities participating in the company's Zero Waste Program.

Article Link: Apple Hits Record 30% Recycled Content Across All Products in 2025
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2026/04/16/apple-hits-record-recycled-content/
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The batteries and magnets precious metals figures are impressive. Overall, though, these are marketing numbers that don't reflect real-world environmental impact. I'll be impressed when 1) I can trade in my old AirPods for recycling 2) Apple doesn't change the dimensions of the iPhone every year, requiring more cases to be tossed into landfills.
 
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klasma said:
Hollywood is way ahead, they have like 90% of recycled content across all products.
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But Apple is 30% recycled products and 70% profit.

Hollywood maybe more than 90% recycled but compared to Apple the production value cost a lot more per year and the profits are not guaranteed.
 
applicious84 said:
I always wonder what stories like these mean when we don't mention their actual greenhouse gas emissions and their general impact on the environment
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Very little. Recycling is the failure point of the 3 stage cycle anyway. Its first reduce, then reuse, then finally recycle. I'd prefer they tell us about the first two instead.

While its good to avoid using new materials, it'd be a lot better if they allowed us to reuse cases between devices that are the same size generation after generation, and other items like keyboards on devices. There really isn't a reason why I can't use my Magic keyboard on my M4 iPad for example. I'd be completely okay with some reduced capability compared to the newer version, but Apple's POV is to trash the old one and get a completely new device.
 
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Yeah... recycling is good, but then again it's the word of the actual manufacturer that we have to believe. The fact is that environmental regulations aren't really followed to the letter in Asian countries.

(warning... contains strong language)
 
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Powerbooky said:
Yeah... recycling is good, but then again it's the word of the actual manufacturer that we have to believe. The fact is that environmental regulations aren't really followed to the letter in Asian countries.

(warning... contains strong language)
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Fantastic clip! Made my day. After multiple recommendations, have to start watching this show.
 
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StuBeck said:
Very little. Recycling is the failure point of the 3 stage cycle anyway. Its first reduce, then reuse, then finally recycle. I'd prefer they tell us about the first two instead.

While its good to avoid using new materials, it'd be a lot better if they allowed us to reuse cases between devices that are the same size generation after generation, and other items like keyboards on devices. There really isn't a reason why I can't use my Magic keyboard on my M4 iPad for example. I'd be completely okay with some reduced capability compared to the newer version, but Apple's POV is to trash the old one and get a completely new device.
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If cases are recyclable and get recycled, the iPhone size and shape doesn't matter anymore.
 
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Le0M said:
If cases are recyclable and get recycled, the iPhone size and shape doesn't matter anymore.
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There are environmental costs with purchasing a new case. If you really care about the environment, then reusing a case is what we would want to do. Recycling doesn't really help.
 
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klasma said:
Hollywood is way ahead, they have like 90% of recycled content across all products.
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Thank IP laws for that. Sure, you save a bit on writers when they can just copy already-written stories, but the real savings is in trademarking all the things. That's why we get so many terrible sequels, they don't have to be as good because they are artificially cheaper than making something new and fresh.
 
Black_Mage said:
Penn and Teller made an episode on why most recycling is ******** but I can’t find it.
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The vast majority of things are technically recyclable, but the cost with current technology is higher than using newly produced raw materials. Until that changes (for whatever reason: increased scarcity, better tech, more easily recycled materials, etc.), most recycling will be a scam because it's farmed out to whoever claims they can do it for the best price. Who can offer such great prices? Businesses in countries where they will look the other way if you claim you're recycling something that would cost $5000/ton to actually recycle, but you're actually just sticking it in a landfill for $200/ton.

Actually profitable recycling does exist, mostly for higher value commodities that are fairly easy to recover (like precious metals) and/or that would be very harmful to the environment if not recycled (like mercury). These items prove that what really needs to be done is improving the tech and preparing disposed materials the best we can so they can be recovered once it makes economic sense.
 
probably only because the deal for recycled materials was already good, or the cost was minimal compared to the gain in marketing.

it cannot be stated enough: if apple gave a damn about the environment over profits they would create easily accessible batteries.

the planned obsolescence of an ageing battery glued into a phone behind a glued screen and tons of tiny pentalobe screws is the biggest FU to the planet and the consumer.

don't buy their BS
 
Timpetus said:
Thank IP laws for that. Sure, you save a bit on writers when they can just copy already-written stories, but the real savings is in trademarking all the things. That's why we get so many terrible sequels, they don't have to be as good because they are artificially cheaper than making something new and fresh.
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Nope, that is not why. Companies remake successful IP because it is perceived to be lower risk. It has already proven that there was an audience for it, so remaking it or adding a sequel are considered much lower risk than trying something new.
 
cbns said:
probably only because the deal for recycled materials was already good, or the cost was minimal compared to the gain in marketing.

it cannot be stated enough: if apple gave a damn about the environment over profits they would create easily accessible batteries.

the planned obsolescence of an ageing battery glued into a phone behind a glued screen and tons of tiny pentalobe screws is the biggest FU to the planet and the consumer.

don't buy their BS
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I actually agree with you, but also understand that this is not feasible. Apple probably wouldn't be a company if they didnt follow trending standards like an internal battery.
External battery devices still exist. Good luck finding someone using one in the wild (they're out there)
 
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