Apple's Cupertino Recycling Push Reshapes Gadgets

Apple is redesigning parts of its gadget business around recycled feedstock, with 30% of the material in products shipped in 2025 coming from recycled content. (apple.com) Apple said on April 16 that all batteries it designs now use 100% recycled cobalt, and all magnets now use 100% recycled rare earth elements. The company also said Apple products now ship in fiber-based packaging after removing plastic from packaging. (apple.com) The shift reaches beyond scrap collection. Apple has spent the past three years changing product engineering and supplier standards so recycled cobalt, rare earths, tin and gold can be qualified for batteries, magnets and printed circuit boards at production scale. (apple.com) Apple ties that work to Apple 2030, its plan to make its full footprint carbon neutral by the end of the decade. In its 2026 Environmental Progress Report, the company said greenhouse gas emissions in 2025 remained more than 60% below 2015 levels. (apple.com) For Cupertino, the recycling push is also a supply story. Apple said in July 2025 that it committed $500 million to MP Materials for American-made rare earth magnets and a new recycling line in Mountain Pass, California, linking material recovery to domestic sourcing. (apple.com) Apple has been building the recovery side for years. Its Daisy robot can disassemble iPhones to recover high-quality materials, and Apple said in 2019 that each Daisy unit could process 1.2 million devices a year. (apple.com) The company later added Dave, a system for pulling apart the iPhone’s Taptic Engine to recover rare earth magnets, tungsten and steel. Apple said in 2022 it was also licensing Daisy-related patents to researchers and electronics manufacturers working on their own disassembly methods. (apple.com 1) (apple.com 2) Apple’s environmental reports frame the strategy as a circular model: use more recycled or renewable inputs, then return an equivalent amount of material to the market through recovery and recycling programs. The company says it operates or participates in responsible recycling programs in 99% of the countries where it sells products. (apple.com) Apple is also using new products to show the math. In its April 16 announcement, the company said the MacBook Neo launched this year with 60% recycled content overall. (apple.com) The next test is whether Apple can keep raising recycled content while shipping at Apple scale. The company’s latest update says it plans to keep pushing those material and recovery changes across the rest of its lineup before 2030. (apple.com)