Apple makes millions from iPhone recycling scheme
Wednesday, April 20, 2016 - 13:36:11
iPhone maker Apple has stepped up its efforts to convince customers that recycling their old phone is essential whenever they decide to upgrade. And now figures from the firm, analysed by Business Insider, suggest that it is making a lot of money by reclaiming materials from unwanted handsets.
Last year, more than 27 million kilograms of recyclable materials were extracted from old iPhones by Apple. This includes things like the steel and glass used to construct the exterior, as well as metals like nickel and cobalt, which make up aspects of the interior components.
However, the real value in recycling old phones comes from extracting the gold from the circuitry, which in 2015 alone was worth an estimated £27 million to Apple. And with £4.2 million in copper also recovered, it is obvious that manufacturers and recycling companies, alike, have a vested interest in getting people to sell their old smartphones.
Making mobile ownership more sustainable is only possible if consumers are convinced to recycle their devices once they have decided they no longer want to use them, for whatever reason. And these figures show that even a handset which no longer functions as intended can still be worth something once it is broken down and stripped of its precious minerals.
Throwing away a mobile phone means tossing gold, copper and other valuable metals into landfill sites, where they will never be recovered. But recycling any electronic device will stop this from happening and mean that all the effort which went into mining and refining these materials in the first place will not have gone to waste.
Apple’s introduction of a mobile recycling robot earlier this year was just one of the examples of how this tech giant has made more of a concerted effort to promote mobile recycling awareness.
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