Finite Resources

Not everything can be replaced. So we reuse and recycle.

Aluminum purification at one of our suppliers in Taiwan.

We’re conscious of how we use resources that may not be around forever. So we’re designing products that use fewer materials than ever before. We’ve come up with innovative ways to minimize the environmental impact of our raw materials by using more recycled, recyclable, and sustainable plant‑based materials. And we’re striving to reuse as much water as we can when manufacturing our products, and in the data centers that help those products and services work.

Making the most of our materials.

Over the past decade, Apple designers and engineers have continued to pioneer new ways to build our products with less material. Manufacturing innovations such as unibody construction have allowed products like iPad, MacBook, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air to become thinner while being even more resilient. Today’s Mac Pro uses 74 percent less aluminum and steel than the previous design. The newest 21.5‑inch iMac is made with 68 percent less material than the first iMac, and the new MacBook uses 32 percent less aluminum than the first-generation MacBook Air.

We’re constantly striving to design products that are thin and light — not just so they’re beautiful and portable, but also so they require fewer materials to manufacture.
Kate BergeronVP, Hardware Engineering, Apple,at our product design studio in Cupertino, California.

Designed for durability.

Smaller and lighter products are easier on the environment, but sometimes the environment isn’t easy on them. So we design everything from our largest displays to our smallest cables to be durable and long-lasting. And we test them in our own Reliability Testing Lab.

Every Mac notebook battery is designed to last for over 1000 charges.

You don’t have to buy a new Apple product to have one that feels new. We make it easy to update to new versions of apps, software, and entire operating systems — OS X Yosemite works on Mac computers made as far back as 2007 — so you’ll have a new experience without buying a new device. Our built‑in notebook batteries are designed to last up to five years, which saves on buying new batteries, produces less waste, and increases the lifespan of your notebook.

And when Apple product owners pass along their devices to friends or family, they’re conserving resources, too. The mark of a great product isn’t just how many you sell, but how much it’s used.

When it comes to processing electronic waste, it’s all about attention to detail. We work hard to find recycling partners that share our vision.
Ken SparkmanGlobal Environmental Program Manager, Apple,at a partner recycling facility in France.

Our commitment to recycling.

If not recycled properly, electronic waste can be a serious health and environmental issue. To make a quick profit, unethical recyclers sometimes dump e‑waste or use dangerous techniques that can leak toxins and harm the environment. That’s why we’re committed to helping people recycle responsibly. Every Apple Retail Store in the world accepts Apple products for responsible recycling. Our Reuse and Recycling Program also allows customers in several countries to bring in their older devices in exchange for credit toward a new model. We’ve set up recycling programs — such as providing free shipping on e-waste returns and organizing collection events and ongoing take‑back programs with governments and universities — in 99 percent of the countries where we sell our products. Since 1994, we have diverted more than 508 million pounds of equipment from landfills.

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We’ve set up recycling programs in 99 percent of the countries where we sell our products.

In 2010, we set out to achieve a worldwide recycling collection rate of 70 percent of the total weight of the products we sold seven years earlier. Since then, we have consistently reached 85 percent. In 2014, we collected 40,396 metric tons of e‑waste through our take‑back programs. That’s more than 75 percent of the total weight of the products we sold seven years earlier, and significantly more than others in the industry typically report.

We wanted to better understand the impact of these programs throughout the entire recycling chain, so we worked with e‑waste experts to calculate how our recycling programs break down into raw materials: how much aluminum, steel, and other materials from the waste we collect was recovered for reuse instead of mining more virgin material. The remaining amount of waste was processed and managed to minimize environmental impact.

Materials like aluminum, steel, copper, gold, silver, and palladium need to be mined from the earth and processed, which requires extensive land use and generates greenhouse gasses and other emissions. By recycling these materials, we can prevent a significant amount of these impacts. For example, we recovered enough steel in 2014 that the equivalent could be used to build over 100 miles of railroad track. And we are continually investing in new ways to better reuse these materials and recover other rare elements.

Keep recycling local.

All electronic waste we collect worldwide is processed in the region where it’s collected — nothing is shipped overseas for disposal. The vast majority of our recycling is handled in‑region, so we can make sure our recycled materials are not being dumped unsafely in developing countries — a common problem in our industry. This also helps us keep our transportation‑related greenhouse gas emissions low. We currently work with 140 partners around the globe whose facilities are rigorously evaluated annually on health and safety, environmental compliance, material tracking, social responsibility, and other Apple mandates.

Learn more about our recycling programs
Apple employees conduct an audit at our partner recycling center in France, ensuring that materials collected are handled properly.

There are better things to do with waste than put it in a landfill.

Our multiuse facility in Cork, Ireland, has set the standard for our supply chain by receiving the first UL Zero Waste to Landfill validation outside North America. The location handles both corporate and manufacturing operations, and none of its 13,400 metric tons of annual waste is sent to landfills. The portion of waste the Cork facility sends to be incinerated and used for energy is just 3 percent, which is far below the maximum 10 percent allowed for Zero Waste to Landfill validation.

The Cork facility achieved Zero Waste to Landfill validation through a number of efforts. In the factory, the same packaging in which we receive iMac components is reused to ship iMac to customers. And all cardboard, foam packaging, plastic trays, electrical cables, and pallets are recycled. Even the cooking oil from the campus cafeteria is recovered to produce biodiesel fuel.

Everyone should have water to use and reuse.

Water is the world’s most precious resource. So we continue to look for ways to reduce water consumption during manufacturing, cooling, landscaping, and sanitation.

The cooling system at our Maiden, North Carolina, data center reuses water 35 times.

Our Maiden, North Carolina, data center employs an innovative cooling system that reuses water 35 times, resulting in a 20 percent reduction in overall water consumption at the data center.

At our facilities that receive less dependable rainfall, we installed sophisticated irrigation systems that monitor local weather conditions and soil moisture, which led to a 40 percent reduction in landscape watering. At some facilities, we’ve achieved further reductions thanks to drought‑tolerant landscaping and drip irrigation.

In 2014, we made a number of water improvements at our Cupertino headquarters, including a significant renovation of the landscaping on our Infinite Loop campus. There, we completed our conversion from inefficient overhead spray irrigation to subsurface drip irrigation and surface bubblers, which conserves much more water. Across our Santa Clara Valley campuses, we planted more than 700 drought‑tolerant trees.

Water is a precious resource. So we’re helping our suppliers comply with both local water use standards and those we set at Apple.
Emily ChenEHS Program Manager, Apple,at our supplier Dongguan Meadville Circuits in China.

Overall, we converted over 130,000 square feet of landscaping to be better suited to our climate and to use less water. These efforts translate to an estimated water savings of 2.3 million gallons of water per year.

To make sure our suppliers are also part of our water conservation efforts, we’ve established the Clean Water Program. This initiative helps reduce water use, promote water recycling and reuse, and prevent illegal water pollution within our supply chain.

The Clean Water Program has already proved successful at several of our supplier sites, including Dongguan Meadville Circuits (DMC), located in China’s Guangdong Province. In September 2013, DMC had a nearly 12 percent wastewater reuse rate. After enrolling in the Clean Water Program and working with our experts, DMC’s wastewater reuse rate climbed to approximately 61 percent by the end of 2014.

Learn more about our Clean Water Program