The Mobile Phone Recycling Robot by Apple

We love to see companies going the extra mile to make the world a more environmentally friendly place. Many are choosing to become carbon neutral with the help of a company such as Cool Effect. However, it is often left to the hands of the big companies to revolutionise the way we recycle. Take Apple for example – their latest development, a high tech phone recycling machine is going to revolutionise the way their mobile phones are recycled.

Have you considered where your old phone goes when you send it off to be recycled? Depending on where you send it, it is likely to either get sold on or as the video from Apple states, the materials are detected removes and separated and re-purposed.

The cobalt from the spent lithium battery is extracted to be reused, and as mining cobalt is a perilous task, this has more intrinsic values than just the cost of the material itself, in a similar sense is the tungsten which is a conflict material.

The gold and copper from the camera are extracted to be melted and used again in a very efficient process.

Silver and platinum from the board is again melted and reused in future boards.

Then the remainder of the casing and glass can be recycled using traditional methods for recycling all contributing to the reducing of Apples carbon footprint, an ethos and commitment they have taken very seriously and even received plaudits from the American Government for their initiatives.

The iPhone is made up of multiple different materials and there is always going to be a limit on what resources can be acquired so the fact that Apple are making steps to go against the throw away culture of the current generation seems to be greatly received and in times where climate change and the steps toward becoming carbon neutral or even carbon negative is a key focus for leading corporations.

Liam can currently only service the iPhone6 (still 1.2 million phones a year) so for many of us with different phones that aren’t being used in our drawers then this simply isn’t an option without spending an inordinate amount of time extracting the materials, so just by ensuring they can be repurposed and recycled then they won’t end up in landfill.

So what can you do?

That handset in your drawer at home could be worth a bit of money, when you come to recycle your iPhone handset with CompareandRecycle.co.uk you can compare the companies by what they are likely to pay you for your handset based on condition and the age of the handset itself.