Apple Inc wants to “one day” end the need to mine materials from the earth to make its gadgets, the technology giant said in its annual environmental responsibility report released on Thursday.
“Traditional supply chains are linear,” it said. “Materials are mined, manufactured as products and often end up in landfills after use. Then the process starts over and more materials are extracted from the earth for new products.”
“We believe our goal should be a closed-loop supply chain, where products are built using only renewable resources or recycled material,” it added.
The company’s research concluded that recycled aluminum should come from Apple products rather than recycling facilities because of the high quality required.
Apple has been encouraging customers to return used products and has melted down iPhone aluminum enclosures to make mini computers used in its factories.
“For tin, we took a different approach,” the company said. “Unlike aluminum, there is an existing market supply of recycled tin that meets our quality standards.”
The ultimate aim is “to one day end our reliance on mining altogether,” the company said, without specifying a date.
Apple did not disclose the amount of recycled products used in its products.
“Apple’s commitment to 100 percent recycled materials is ambitious, and highlights the need for greater urgency across the sector to reduce resource consumption and e-waste that are causing significant impacts on the environment and human health,” Greenpeace senior analyst Gary Cook said.
Making gadgets with reclaimed material reduces demand for mined metals and increases the tendency for devices to be recycled, the environmental group said.
Samsung Electronics Co last month said it would sell some Note 7 smartphones that were recalled for safety reasons as refurbished devices.
A Samsung statement said that salvageable components from devices would be detached and the metals extracted by companies that specialize in recycling.
Apple is also among Silicon Valley titans investing heavily in “green” energy for operations, saying that 96 percent of the electricity at its global facilities comes from alternative energy sources and that its new “spaceship” main campus is powered entirely by “renewable” energy.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day