Apple wants to only use recycled cobalt in iPhones and Macbooks by 2025

Apple wants to equip all its devices with batteries made from recycled cobalt from 2025. Now that is roughly a quarter, the company says, but the share of recycled cobalt is increasing. Other materials used must also be reused.

Apple writes that it sets that deadline for 2025. All cobalt that the company wants to use in iPhones, iPads and Apple Watches, but also Macbooks, must be from 100 percent recycled cobalt. That cobalt is in the batteries of the devices, the vast majority of which Apple designs itself.

The company also wants to make all magnets in the devices from recycled rare earth metals. PCBs must also be made with recycled materials, such as tin for soldered parts and gold. This must also be completely recycled material by 2025.

By 2022, approximately a quarter of all cobalt used by Apple would have been recycled. In 2021, this was still thirteen percent, the company says. Apple says it wants to be circular by 2030 and this step is an important one. At the same time, the company is also criticized for greenwashing, for example by no longer supplying a charger with iPhones. Critics say that Apple does this mainly to make money from selling chargers.